Remaining U.S. alcohol pulled from liquor store shelves in Manitoba

Remaining U.S. alcohol pulled from liquor store shelves in Manitoba

'Prime Minister Carney was very clear that we were attacked': Premier Wab Kinew

Manitoba has once again yanked all remaining American booze from the shelves of provincially run liquor stores in response to the ongoing Canada-U.S. trade war.

The alcohol was removed this week, according to an email from a spokesperson for Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries, the provincial Crown corporation that runs Liquor Mart retail stores and distributes wholesale alcohol across the province.

"So long as the Trump administration is trying to harm our economy, I don't see why a publicly owned Liquor Mart should give shelf space to American products, when we could be using that to highlight great Canadian products instead," Premier Wab Kinew told reporters on Thursday.

U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 50 per cent tariffs on Canadian steel after trade negotiations broke down on Aug, 22.

Three days layer, Canada announced the dollar-for-dollar countermeasures to take effect Sept. 8 on $27.6 billion worth of U.S. goods.

"Prime Minister Carney was very clear that we were attacked. I think part of our response that's been very effective has been to take the U.S. booze off the shelf," Kinew said.

"So long as the Trump administration is trying to harm our economy, I don't see why a publicly owned Liquor Mart should give shelf space to American products."

Manitoba pulled American products off Liquor Mart shelves in February 2025 in response to the Trump's administration's first round of tariffs. The following month, the province directed Liquor & Lotteries to also cease purchasing and distributing U.S.-made products.

Some American alcohol returned to shelves in December, as the stores started selling off existing inventory in a "last-chance" sale. Whatever remained as of this week is now gone, back in storage.

While some people celebrated the return of U.S. liquor for the sale, the products have mostly been ignored by Manitobans, the Liquor & Lotteries spokesperson's email said.

Manitoba sells off U.S. wines, liqueurs set to expire in fall

Manitobans "have developed a taste and preference for local and Canadian products," and the Crown corporation has seen "a clear desire to support the wide variety of world-class beer, wine, and liquor that are produced locally and across Canada," the email stated.

The spokesperson later said it's too soon to provide an estimate of how much the remaining U.S. liquor items are worth.

"While we work through the logistics of removing U.S. products from Liquor Mart shelves across our 64 stores, we are still determining the appropriate handling of that inventory," they wrote.

"We won’t be in a position to provide updated inventory figures for a while."

U.S. booze being taken off Manitoba Liquor Mart shelves

Darren Bernhardt has been with CBC Manitoba since 2009 and specializes in offbeat and local history stories. He is the author of two bestselling books: The Lesser Known: A History of Oddities from the Heart of the Continent, and Prairie Oddities: Punkinhead, Peculiar Gravity and More Lesser Known Histories.