Empty shelves at B.C. liquor stores as American booze pulled in response to tariffs

A shelf at a Vancouver liquor store is shown on Feb. 2, 2025.

Shelves that held bottles of Kentucky bourbon, Jack Daniels whiskey and Bacardi rum are sitting empty at government-run liquor stores in B.C. Sunday – where bottles of booze have been replaced with signs saying, ‘Buy Canadian Instead.’

The move follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order that imposed 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods.

Premier David Eby, in response, pledged to pull American liquor off the shelves and said provincial stores will stop purchasing it. The premiers of Ontario and Quebec have done the same.

The premier said B.C. would be mounting a three-pronged response to Trump’s “declaration of economic war”

First, he said, is retaliation – with the move to halt liquor sales and purchases as the opening salvo. Eby has also directed provincial Crown corporations – such as BC Hydro, ICBC and health authorities – to “immediately stop buying American goods and services, and buy Canadian.”

In addition to supporting the federal government on retaliatory tariffs, the B.C. government will look to make the provincial economy “stronger and more self-sufficient,” Eby said.

Finally, Eby also talked about embarking on new trade missions overseas, as well as working with leaders across Canada to reduce trade barriers within the country.

B.C. Conservative Leader John Rustad issued his own response to the tariffs, penning a letter to Eby as well as what he bills as a 10-point plan to respond. One of those points is an immediate move to call back the legislature, which has not met since Eby’s NDP was re-elected with a bare majority after a nail-biting race last year.

With files from CTV News Vancouver’s Ian Holliday