You Called Canadians Boneheaded. Now You Want Us Buying Your Booze Again

The U.S. liquor industry wants things “back to normal.” Canadians remember the insults, changed their habits, and still control what goes into the cart

Chris Swonger is at it again. If you don’t know who this guy is, he’s the President and CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. He called Canadians boneheaded when we pulled U.S. liquor off our shelves. Yep, I’m still not letting anyone forget that one.

I’ve been highly critical of this guy and have probably done half a dozen videos on him by now. I genuinely despise his attitude because, from everything I’ve seen, he seems to care about one thing: his industry. Not the other industries caught in this mess, not the broader damage, just his and only his.

You can check out my latest video if you want to see exactly how little patience I have left for this guy. At this point, I should probably start charging him rent for how often he appears on my channel.

It’s inevitable that U.S. liquor is going to be back on Canadian shelves sooner or later, and Chris and his group of distillery companies are probably hoping Canadians across the country come sprinting back to pick up their beloved American booze. Well, I hate to break it to you, Chris, but don’t get your hopes up.

You see, Canadians have had the great pleasure of not having U.S. liquor on many of our shelves since March 2025, and in the meantime we’ve found plenty of quality replacements. That’s a long time to change how you shop.

I remember reading somewhere that it takes about 21 days to form a new habit. Well, we’re a little past 21 days at this point. We’ve had more than enough time to figure out that life somehow goes on without American booze.

And with every passing day, a little more lighter fluid seems to get poured onto the fire of pissed off Canadians. We’ve had plenty of time to find other products, change our habits and discover that, shockingly enough, the world does in fact make alcohol outside the United States, and quite frankly way better alcohol. I won’t even get into what you guys call beer, which we called flavoured water.

For me, Swonger’s latest interview with CTV was another splash of lighter fluid on that fire. Why? Because it reminded me that Swonger and the distilleries he represents still don’t seem interested in taking much responsibility for their government’s actions. Then again, I suppose I shouldn’t be shocked considering a pretty sizeable portion of that industry checked the box beside Taco’s name on the ballot. But this interview was packed with statements that I think are going to rub a lot of Canadians the wrong way.

Let me show you a few.

“The unfortunate decision to remove American spirits from Canadian retail shelves…”

Yeah it’s unfortunate for you, but it’s also Canada standing up to you and your country for the initial unwarranted tariffs.

Next.

placing unnecessary burdens on Canadian consumers and hospitality businesses.”

We seem to be doing fine and you seem to believe that Canadians have no other choices except for the US liquor. Do you think we are up here in Canada’s sitting on our snowmobiles in our fur coats in August waiting outside our liquor stores for your beloved Jack Daniels? Do these shelves below look like Canadians don’t have any selection?

Then we have this ignorant comment.

“We are hopeful this is a sign that our special spirits products will soon be back on shelves for Canadians to enjoy…”

“Canadians love American whiskey and American distilled spirits.”

Source For All Quotes: CTV Interview

Sorry, but I actually enjoy your spirits not being on the shelves. And from where I am in Malaysia, where your liquor is available, I get a little bit of satisfaction walking right past it and buying something else instead. Oh by the way, Malaysia seems to be avoiding your liquor too, just thought I’d let you know.

You also don’t speak for me when you say, “Canadians love American whiskey.” Sure, maybe 20 to 25% of Canadians still do, but there’s a pretty big majority of us who don’t love your whiskey anymore. But if you insist on speaking for us, Chris, then apparently Canadians love American whiskey so much that we stopped buying the shit and some straight up despise it.

What really bothered me about Swonger’s interview was how selective his version of “back to normal” seems to be. At one point, he actually says he hopes Canada and the U.S. can get back to normal relations, “at least for this great industry.”

There it is.

Not normal relations for everyone who has been caught in this trade mess. Not the auto workers, steel workers, lumber industry, agriculture or all the other businesses north and south of the border taking a beating. Apparently, if the American liquor industry can get its bottles back onto Canadian shelves, Chris is ready to call that a day and sip his crappy bourbon on his tacky sofa.

And that is what makes the whole argument feel incredibly selfish to me. The U.S. spirits industry wants the part of the old relationship that benefited them restored as quickly as possible. They want access to our shelves, they want Canadian customers buying their products again, and they want their sales numbers back.

Meanwhile, Canadians are apparently supposed to forget everything else that happened and go back to shopping like it’s February 2025. Just reset the clock, pretend none of this happened, and make sure the bourbon starts moving again. Convenient.

Sorry, Chris, that isn’t how this works. You don’t get to pick the one part of “normal” that puts money back into your industry and only benefits you and expect Canadians to pretend the rest of the relationship hasn’t changed.

I would genuinely love to ask Swonger this question: “What are your thoughts on all the Canadian businesses that have lost almost all of their U.S. business because your president removed the De Minimis policy, causing Canadian and international businesses to take a massive hit in revenue?”

My guess is his answer would be something along the lines of, “Listen or Look (they love using the world look), the Distilled Spirits Council just wants to give Canadian consumers what they want, blah blah blah…” You know, the classic Sidestepping 101 response. But hey, it’s a legitimate fucking question, and I would actually love to hear him answer it without immediately steering the conversation back to why his bourbon is the god of alcohols.

And I’m not the only Canadian who really doesn’t care that U.S. liquor might be coming back. CTV spoke to a few Canadians about it, and their responses were pretty telling.

“We’ll stick with Canadian products, thanks. We’ve changed our shopping habits and we’re gonna keep that up.”

“We found it no challenge really to move on from American red wines to Australian and South American red wines.”

“I don’t think I’d go back to Kentucky bourbon. I’m quite happy with Crown Royal, so long as they bottle it in Canada.”

Source For All Quotes: CTV Interview (Hey I have to put my source so the hater’s wont’ think I’m making shit up).

So it’s pretty clear that Canadians have changed our habits. I know a lot of us would love to see U.S. liquor stay off the shelves indefinitely, but the reality is that it’s coming back sooner or later, and probably sooner rather than later.

But while U.S. distillers and Swonger do their little country dance in celebration, thinking Canadians finally caved, we gave in to the pressure, and everything is about to magically go back to February 2025, they may be in for a fucking surprise.

The Canadian federal and provincial governments might work out a deal that puts U.S. liquor back on the shelves. Fine. But the federal and provincial governments cannot force us to buy it. That part is still up to Canadians like you and me.

We still have the power to decide where our money goes, and I think even when those bottles are sitting back on the shelves, we should be just as loud as we are now about not buying their crap ass alcohol. Put it back if you want. Doesn’t mean we have to put it in the shopping cart.

I can’t wait to hear the excuse that comes out of the U.S. when Canadian sales don’t go back to normal.

Because I already know what probably won’t happen: anyone admitting that maybe Canadians changed their habits, found other products, and simply don’t want to go back. No, I’m sure there’ll be some other explanation. There always seems to be one. They’ll probably blame our Canadian government because they withheld the liquor for so long that Canadians forgot what it’s like, some bullshit like that.

And to the people who will inevitably tell me that avoiding Kentucky bourbon or Tennessee whiskey is hurting the livelihoods of people in those states, my response is going to be pretty simple:

Who did they vote for?

Canadians didn’t create this mess, and we’re not obligated to spend our money fixing the consequences of someone else’s political choices.

GTL & Co-Host

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About the Author

A fourth-generation Canadian born and raised in Vancouver, now living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. With no background in writing or content creation, GTL stepped well outside his comfort zone and started a YouTube channel to stand up for Canada and help make Canadian voices heard.

He also has two cats, a calico and a tortie. The calico regularly appears in his videos, although some viewers would argue that it’s actually her channel and GTL is merely the the Co-Host.