President Donald Trump’s efforts to pressure Canada to lift a boycott on U.S. alcohol appear to have backfired.
Several Canadian provinces, including Quebec, Ontario, and British Columbia, pulled American-made alcohol from government-run liquor store shelves amid last year’s trade dispute, dealing a multimillion-dollar blow to U.S. producers.
Now the Trump administration is pressing Canada to lift the boycott, but new poll conducted by Nanos Research Group for Bloomberg News shows that most Canadians back the ban.
According to the poll, conducted in late December among 1,077 Canadians, 73 percent nationwide back the boycott, compared with just 20 percent who want American liquor returned to shelves.
Support for the boycott was consistent across the country. In Quebec and Ontario—home to Canada’s largest provincial liquor markets—74 percent said U.S. booze should remain excluded. Atlantic Canada showed similar levels of support, with 73 percent backing the boycott, while 72 percent in the Prairies agreed. Even in British Columbia, where opposition was highest, more than seven in 10 respondents favored keeping U.S. alcohol off shelves.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said a “successful” review by the Trump administration of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which is crucial to Canada’s economy, will depend on the Canadian provinces ending their liquor boycotts, according to Bloomberg.
Asked for comment by the Daily Beast, White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai said: “President Trump’s skillful use of tariffs has created unprecedented market access for American products to economies that in total are worth over $30 trillion with over one billion people. As these trade deals and the Administration’s pro-growth policies of deregulation and working-class tax cuts take effect, it’s going to be bottoms up for American distillers, brewers, and winemakers.”
Canadian resistance to U.S. products has become a flashpoint in the broader backlash against Trump’s aggressive trade tactics, which have included tariffs on steel and aluminum, threats to cripple Canada’s auto industry, and even talk of using “economic force” to turn Canada into the 51st state.
And the fallout has been costly for U.S. alcohol producers, with Canadian sales of American wine and spirits collapsing and major brands reporting steep losses Brown-Forman, maker of Jack Daniel’s, said Canadian sales plunged more than 60 percent in the first half of fiscal 2026, with its CEO calling the boycott “worse than a tariff.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has shown little sign of backing down, making clear that American alcohol will remain barred from government-run LCBO stores unless the trade dispute is resolved.
Ford said U.S. brands will stay off shelves until tariffs are lifted or a new version of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is negotiated. “If they don’t, then they aren’t getting any booze on our shelves,” he said, CBC News reported.
