For the second time in as many days, Ontario Premier Doug Ford suggested he was willing to back down from his threat to remove Crown Royal from the LCBO, but only if his government can extract concessions from the international alcohol maker that produces the Canadian whisky.
On Wednesday, Ford said he was offering the company Diageo an “olive branch” to present the government with a plan to replace the 160 jobs that were impacted by the closure of a Crown Royal bottling facility in Amherstburg in order to avoid a booze ban at the LCBO.
“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,” Ford told Global News during a news conference.
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“I’m pretty easygoing.”
The spat between the Ford government and Diageo first began in the fall, when the company announced its facility in Ontario would shut down and relocate to the United States. Two other facilities, however, in Gimli, Man., and Valleyfield, Que., would remain in operation.
For months, the premier has been firmly insisting that his government was willing to use the taxpayer-owned LCBO to retaliate against Diageo by pulling Crown Royal from the provincial liquor retailer if the company didn’t change its mind.
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In early January, Ford told whiskey drinkers to “stock up” because he was “100 per cent” certain in his decision.
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Since then, Ford has faced criticism from a consumer advocacy group, which accused him of “weaponizing” the LCBO, from some federal Conservative MPPs, from Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew and from Quebec’s finance minister, who warned the Ontario premier that his actions could hurt Canadian workers in their provinces.
On Monday, Ford offered his first break, telling reporters at Queen’s Park that he’s “flexible” – a position he reiterated on Wednesday when he offered Diageo an “olive branch.”
“Sometimes, yeah, does it get nasty when they take jobs away? One hundred per cent,” Ford said. “It does, because I’m responsible at the end of the day, and we’re fighting on a couple fronts, so we’re going to do everything we can to make sure that we invest here in Ontario.”
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What remains unclear is whether the Ford government will actually receive any concessions from the alcohol maker.
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In early December 2025, Diageo struck a closure agreement with the local union, giving workers enhanced benefits when they left their jobs at the end of February.
The company then promptly put the entire property, 110 St. Arnaud St., up for sale.
Meanwhile, Unifor Local 200, which represents the front-line employees, told Global News that a third of the workers have already found new jobs at the nearby Stellantis auto assembly plant in Windsor or trades-related jobs connected to the union.
In a statement to Global News, Diageo said the company will maintain a “significant footprint” in the country, including at the Canadian headquarters and warehousing operations in the Greater Toronto Area, along with the distilling and bottling facilities in Manitoba and Quebec.
“Diageo directly employs more than 500 people across Canada, including more than 100 in Ontario (outside of those currently working at the Amherstburg site),” a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.
The company did not answer questions about whether it plans to present the government with a job replacement strategy.
Ford has maintained his conviction that Diageo will eventually close the plants in Manitoba and Quebec, underpinning his push to punish the company.
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If the premier does go through with the threat, he said whisky drinkers should turn to other “great whisky manufacturers that are employing people right here in Ontario.”
“Let’s focus and support them,” Ford said.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
