Ford cancels plan to remove Crown Royal from LCBO shelves after $23M deal

TORONTO – Crown Royal will remain on Ontario liquor store shelves, after its parent company agreed to $23 million in spending in the province and Premier Doug Ford cancelled his plans for a boycott.

Ford had been threatening for months to pull the product from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario after Diageo announced it is closing a Windsor-area Crown Royal bottling plant. 

The premier memorably kicked off his campaign against Diageo by slowly pouring out a bottle of Crown Royal onto the ground at a press conference.

In recent weeks, though, the premier had softened his tone, saying he offered what he called an olive branch to the company. He urged them to support Ontario jobs in other ways since the Amherstburg closure will affect 200 jobs.

Ford announced Friday that Diageo has agreed to new spending in the province, including $11 million to buy grain neutral spirits from eastern Ontario, $5 million in Ontario-based marketing and promotion, and $3 million in ready-to-drink beverages through a Toronto-based co-packer.

“By standing firm in our plan to protect Ontario workers, we’ve secured nearly $23 million in investments that Ontario would not otherwise have seen,” Ford wrote 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.”

Diageo said in a statement it is glad there is a resolution.

“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,” the company wrote.

Lisa Gretzky, the New Democratic member of provincial parliament for Windsor West, said the deal does nothing for the 200 workers losing their jobs in Amherstburg.

“The plant will still be closed,” she wrote in a statement.

“Not a penny of the $23 million dollars will go towards helping these workers feed their families, and only four per cent of it is going to our community. Does the premier expect us to applaud him for commitments outside of Windsor-Essex?”

Diageo also has bottling and distillation facilities in Manitoba and Quebec, and government officials from those provinces had expressed concern about what a boycott of Crown Royal in Ontario would do to those jobs.

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew in particular urged Ford to back down, and on Friday he said he is glad Ontario found a path forward. 

Ford had warned that Diageo would move all Canadian production to the U.S., which the company denied, and Kinew said Friday that the Crown Royal facility in Gimli appears secure.

“There’s a big transmission line coming in, new investments in the warehouse, so that all signals a long-term presence in Manitoba and good jobs for people in Gimli and the region,” Kinew said.

Quebec Finance Minister Eric Girard, who had urged Ford to reconsider, welcomed the Ontario government’s decision.

“This agreement is good news, not only for Ontario, Manitoba and Quebec,” Girard said in a statement. “It will help maintain jobs for our workers and strengthen our supply chain across Canada.”

The agreed-upon spending by Diageo in Ontario also includes $2 million for new packaging for pre-mixed beverages from a co-manufacturer in east Toronto, $1 million for organizations that support the growth of Ontario’s agricultural sector and $500,000 for economic development in the Amherstburg area.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 13, 2026.

— With files from Steve Lambert in Winnipeg and Sidhartha Banerjee in Montreal.