Ford backs down on Crown Royal ban after reaching agreement with Diageo

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is backing down from his threat to remove Crown Royal from the shelves of the LCBO after the government said it reached a $23-million agreement with the company that includes new investment but won’t replace the jobs lost.

Months after Ford poured out a bottle of Crown Royal in protest of the company’s decision to shut down a bottling plant in Amherstburg, Ont., impacting roughly 200 jobs, the government said the two sides came to an agreement to avoid the upcoming escalation.

Ford said the $23 million, including everything from ingredient purchases to local economic development investments and advertising, is made up of new investments that “Ontario would not otherwise have seen” if it had not threatened the prohibition.

“By standing firm in our plan to protect Ontario workers, we’ve secured nearly $23 million in investments,” Ford said in a statement. “These investments will help keep Ontario workers on the job, strengthen provincial supply chains and support the local community in Amherstburg and the surrounding area.”

The agreement, however, made no mention of the workers at the Amherstburg facility who are set to leave the facility when it shuts its doors at the end of February. While Ford had expressed hope that Diageo would replace the positions there, neither the government nor the company offered employment-related details.

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Through the fall months, Ford’s threat against Diageo intensified. At one point, he suggested he would ban other products made by the international drinks company, like Smirnoff vodka.

But pressure from across Canada began to mount at the end of the year, as political leaders in Quebec and Manitoba worried about what a ban on Crown Royal would do to the Diageo operations still employing people in their provinces.

Quebec’s finance minister said Ford’s plan to ban the whisky was misguided, while Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew mounted a campaign to get Ontario to back down. He visited a Crown Royal facility in his province and posted a video to social media, encouraging Ford to reconsider.

Ontario’s tone gradually softened and Ford began referencing an “olive branch” he said he was offering to Diageo. He moved from talking exclusively about the plant that was set to close to suggesting the jobs could be replaced in other ways.

“If Diageo comes and says, I’m going to replace these 200 workers by manufacturing bottles, doing their cartons, doing other things, more advertising, so on, so forth, and they can show me on paper. Then, we’ll sit down, and I’ll be open,” he said in January. “I’m pretty easygoing.”

2:14 Ford says he offered Crown Royal company an ‘olive branch’ on LCBO boycott

The agreement the government eventually reached with Diageo will see various spending commitments across the province. The plan includes money for a spirit maker and read-to-drink beverage makers.

Just over 20 per cent of the commitment is for “Ontario-based marketing and promotion.”

A spokesperson for Diageo would not confirm what its advertising budget was in Ontario before the agreement, but thanked the government for backing down on its proposed ban.

“We thank Premier Ford and his team for their exceptional leadership and collaboration in reaching this resolution,” they wrote in a statement.

“Diageo is pleased that Crown Royal, an iconic Canadian Whisky, will remain on the shelves of the LCBO, and we remain committed to Ontario through our significant investment in the province.”