After about a year of “elbows up” rhetoric from the Mark Carney Liberals (which was bought hook, line, and sinker by a gullible electorate), we must yet again utter the most famous query of former Wendy’s spokeswoman Clara Peller: “Where’s the beef?”

With every passing week, the economic news has ranged from bad to horrid. From layoffs and bankruptcies to plant closures, there would appear to be little evidence of an economic turnaround in the works.

Is it elbows up or bellies up?

The latest economic casualty: the Crown Royal bottling facility in Amherstburg, Ont., near Windsor, which closed in late February.

Last August, booze behemoth Diageo announced that this plant that employed 160 workers would be mothballed in early 2026.

The announcement came as a shocking blow for this town of 25,000.

For its part, Diageo says the closure of the plant, which first opened in 1971, has nothing to do with the ongoing tariff tiff.

Marsha McIntosh, Diageo’s president of North America supply, said the following in a statement: “This was a difficult decision, but one that is crucial to improving the efficiency and resiliency of our supply chain network.”

Of note, Diageo’s annual revenue for the fiscal year ending in June 2025 was US$20.25 billion.

When the closure was announced last summer, this did not go unnoticed by Ontario Premier Doug Ford. The province’s chief cherry cheesecake eating enthusiast even staged a press conference in which he poured a large bottle of Crown Royal down the drain. What’s more, an angry Ford threatened to play hardball with Diageo should the closure go through as scheduled. Namely, Ford said Diageo products would be delisted from Liquor Control Board of Ontario stores

That’s a big deal: in addition to Crown Royal, Diageo produces more than 200 brands, including Johnnie Walker Scotch, Captain Morgan rum, Tanqueray gin, Baileys Irish cream, and Guinness beer.

Ford says the LCBO is Diageo’s biggest customer with sales of Diageo products at the LCBO amounting to approximately $740 million annually.

Still, in light of Ford’s threat, many observers pondered just what are the “rules” when it comes to alcohol products being listed – and delisted – on LCBO shelves due to geopolitical reasons?

In 2022, Ford ordered the LCBO to yank Russian vodka due to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine.

Then last year, all U.S. products – ranging from California wines to Kentucky bourbon – were also yanked from the shelves.

Yet, Crown Royal is still very much a Canadian product. It is distilled and aged in Gimli, Man. There is another Crown Royal bottling plant in Valleyfield, Que. The ingredients in Crown Royal such as corn, rye, and barley are grown in Western Canada. And the Canadian headquarters and warehouse operations of Diageo are situated in the Toronto area.

And another thing: last time we checked, the LCBO stocked 176 products from China. Why? Despite what MP Michael Ma says, China has an egregious human rights record. China was the source of Covid-19, which killed millions and cost the world economy untold trillions of dollars. And China imposed a devastating 76% tariff on Canadian canola seed and a 100% duty on canola oil, meal, and peas. Why does this communist dictatorship get a pass? The Ministry of Finance will not say. Perhaps Doug Ford, like his best buddy Justin Trudeau, also has “a level of admiration for China”? Or just maybe China produces the world’s finest cherry cheesecake ingredients?

In any event, at the eleventh hour, Doug Ford bent the knee regarding his threat of banning Diageo products from the LCBO, allegedly due to pressure from other premiers.

Ford went back to the negotiating table with Diageo. And a deal was struck: in exchange for $23 million in spending commitments, the corporation’s products would remain on LCBO shelves.

But check out the fine print: only $500,000 of that sum will be spent directly in Amherstburg!

To add insult to injury, Diageo seems to be in absolutely no rush to sell its plant to another bottling company.

Hopefully this plant can be put back in operation with a different owner so that those abandoned workers can be re-employed. For now, only bitterness abounds.

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