Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew told reporters in Winnipeg on Thursday that if American alcohol returns to the province’s Liquor Mart shelves, Canadians should leave it there. “Don’t buy it,” he said. “Buy the Canadian stuff instead.”
The comment came the same day Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Tony Wakeham said all of Canada’s premiers had agreed to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s request to restock US alcohol as a sign of good faith in the ongoing trade talks with Washington. Manitoba hasn’t formally signed on yet, and Kinew made clear he isn’t enthusiastic about the ask even if his province eventually goes along with it.
A Nanos Research poll conducted for CTV News in late July found 74% of Canadians unlikely to buy American alcohol even if it returns to shelves, up from 70% when Nanos asked the same question a year earlier. Canadians aren’t softening up — they’re “digging in their heels when it comes to purchasing American wine and spirits,” Nanos Research’s Nik Nanos said.
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Kinew has also questioned whether any deal with the Trump administration will hold. He’s called Trump erratic and untrustworthy, and said Manitoba reserves the right to pull US alcohol back off shelves if Washington reneges again.
CTV political commentator Scott Reid said the premier may be reading the room correctly — “Canadians won’t like it, but they will accept it,” Reid said, predicting most Canadians will ultimately defer to Carney even if they share Kinew’s discomfort with the concession.
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Manitoba’s opposition leader Obby Khan has accused Kinew of overstating the province’s own commitment to buying local, pointing to a $36 million contract Manitoba signed with the American food services company Aramark last year. And Steve Matthiasson, a Napa Valley winemaker who grew up in Winnipeg, called Kinew’s blanket approach to US alcohol “nonsensical” for lumping small California producers in with the broader trade dispute — his own exports to Canada have dropped 15 to 20% since the bans began.
If Manitoba does restock, Kinew said some American products could reappear within days, while the full catalogue could take a few weeks because of labelling requirements.
The province first pulled US alcohol from its shelves in February 2025 in response to Trump’s tariffs, briefly reshelving some stock last December — donating $2.6 million in proceeds to charity — before pulling it again. Manitobans kept favoring local anyway, with the province reporting nearly $21 million in year-over-year sales growth toward domestic brands at its Liquor Marts as of June.
