Why is Air Canada still offering passengers American booze?
While provincial and federal ministers this week revived pleas for the nation’s citizens to “buy Canadian” in the fallout of torpedoed Canada-U.S. trade talks, the country’s largest airline is offering business class passengers American bourbon.
As reported by Global News , a subsequently removed social media post Monday claimed Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey was being served to those seated in business class during an Air Canada flight out of Montreal.
Air Canada told National Post in a statement that, “As a global airline transporting international customers including to and from the U.S, Air Canada carries a range of onboard products that reflects our customer preferences.”
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At least one Canadian wine is featured on every international flight, “and we’ve made a deliberate shift toward Canadian spirits and Canadian producers,” Air Canada said. “In addition to the range of Canadian products we proudly feature, we also carry some internationally recognized products that are particularly important to our global customer base, including U.S. bourbon, which is available in Business (Signature) Class only.”
In a statement to National Post, Porter Airlines said it “emphasizes partnering with high-quality Canadian brands whenever possible,” such as Jackson Triggs wine from Niagara and Alberta-based Tumbler & Rocks cocktails, but that no American alcohol is served on board.
Porter has flights to destinations in Canada, the U.S., Mexico, Costa Rica and the Caribbean.
Most provinces removed American liquor from government-run shelves last year in retaliation to the first batch of Trump-imposed tariffs on Canadian goods.
Prime Minister Mark Carney asked provinces to restock American alcohol when a trade agreement appeared near last week. But Ontario Premier Doug Ford has said he has no plans to instruct Liquor Control Board of Ontario outlets to do so anytime soon. While wholesale customers like grocery and convenience stores, bars and restaurants are no longer able to place orders for U.S. products, “it is at their discretion to sell existing inventory,” the LCBO notes on its website, explaining why the boycott is for “the good of Ontario. The good of Canada.”
5News aggregated this summary from the outlet’s public feed. The full article, with all the context, is on nationalpost.com — the content belongs to National Post.