Up in Canada, nearly every province—most of which operate some form of public control of liquor sales—has pulled American spirits off shelves. In many places, bottles disappeared practically overnight, and sales that American distillers were counting on have evaporated.
On a call with shareholders in early March, the CEO of Brown-Forman, parent company of the bestselling American whiskey, Jack Daniel’s, called the situation “worse than a tariff.” But Brown-Forman is a large, long-established, diversified company that will pull through even if quarterly dividends tank, and Canada makes up just 1 percent of its global sales.
