Ford's insanity on booze, Jay go big and Carney's unlikely trip to Washington...
Doug Ford needs to calm down on his booze bans.
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If Doug Ford keeps going, there won’t be anything left to sell at the LCBO. Over the weekend, Ford was at a union rally in Brampton supporting the workers at the Chrysler/Stellantis plant when he went off on booze again.
He once again threatened Diageo, the company that owns Crown Royal among other brands and is in Ford’s bad books for planning to eliminate 160 jobs near Windsor.
“A message to all the bigwigs at Diageo: I swear to God, those bottles of Crown Royal are coming off the LCBO shelves. When the last person walks out through that door, we’re going to make sure LCBO takes off their brands because we need to stick together,” Ford said.
Then on Monday at a meeting in Quebec City, Ford went off on it again.
Smirnoff is next? Is he nuts?
Here’s a partial list of the product produced by Diageo that Ontario Premier Doug Ford is threatening to take off the shelves if they don’t do what he wants.
Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Tanqueray, Baileys, Smirnoff, Don Julio, Talisker, Lagavulin, Captain Morgan, Ketel One, Ciroc, Gordon’s Gin. I would add brands like Bulleit or Aviation American Gin, but those are already banned because Ford banned American booze, just like he banned Russian booze.
You know what you can still get?
You can still buy Chinese booze at the LCBO despite their trade war with us, their tariffs on Canadian goods, their kidnapping of Canadian citizens. But thankfully, I can still buy whatever this is on the shelf at my local LCBO.
As I wrote a month ago, Ford is sending the wrong message, he is telling the world that Ontario is closed for business.
He’s also starting to sound like an unhinged union leader in that first clip. And while I never like the dictator reference in politics, if your ability to do business in Ontario is predicated on keeping the premier happy, then that might turn out to be accurate.
Ford needs to find an off ramp on this file, maybe a sit down with someone from Diageo or an intermediary is in order.
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All Jays, all the time…
I’ll admit that I’ve been distracted by the Blue Jays lately and I like it. I’m not a bandwagon fan, I’ve been going to games off and on since my parents would get us “bleacher creature” tickets for just a couple of bucks at Dominion back in the 80s.
Since moving back to Toronto in 2019, I’ve taken in a lot of games and have really enjoyed watching Vladdy from his first game in the major leagues until now.
On Saturday, my friend Larry texted me as I was out sipping coffee in the street and asked if I’d like to go to the game that afternoon. I have never done a Jays playoff game and let me tell you, the Dome was more electric than I’ve ever seen.
And not just as the Jays were winning, from before the first pitch, you could feel it during O Canada.
Yes, this is where I was sitting. Thanks Larry!
Anyway, as someone who is fully immersed in the political world 24/7 it is good to have a distraction and right now it is the Jays. They are up 2-0 against the Yankees and one more win puts us through to the next round.
Let’s go Blue Jays!
About those talks with Trump…
Late last week PMO, or someone, was leaking out to CTV that they expected movement on steel and aluminum tariffs on Tuesday when Prime Minister Mark Carney heads to Washington to meet with President Donald Trump.
When I heard that last week, I was optimistic, now, not so much.
First off, Trump announced a 25% tariff on medium and heavy duty trucks will be coming. Is it any wonder that GM is moving production to Indiana?
I do wonder though if Doug Ford will ban GM vehicles from Ontario or revoke business licences of GM dealers now.
But I digress…
Trump is still in a tariffy mood and he and Carney haven’t spoken much lately, neither have their officials. Then there are the little pokes that Canada continues to hit the Americans with.
We still might pull out the F-35 purchase (stupid), we thump our chests about dairy and supply management (stupid) and as a little birdie told me, this story was pushed out by the Carney government to create animosity ahead of the trip.
Why is the government pushing a warning about gender neutral passports just before the PM heads down to engage in talks with the Americans? How many people could this possibly impact that we are willing to put trade talks at risk?
Carney has so far failed to deliver with Trump. I hope that changes, but I’m not holding my breath.
Doug Ford is a buffoon. I voted for him because what other choice did we have but let’s face it, he is not the brightest card in the deck. I originally thought he was a sincere guy who really cared. Yes he made stupid mistakes and said stupid things but his heart is in the right place. I am not so sure that this is the case any longer. He raves and rants in front of the cameras but there is zero follow through. Look at the example of that guy who woke up at 3 a.m. in his own place only to find a career criminal with a crossbow rifling through his stuff. He gets up and hears for his kitchen, is struck across the head by the crossbow and in his own self defence he stabs the intruder with a kitchen knife. So what happens - they charge the homeowner. Next thing you know Ford is on TV praising the guy for defending himself and ranting about him being charged. But… who charged him ? The Provence charged him. The Crown Attorney in that district charged him. And who do all of the Crown Attorneys in the Provence report to. - the Attorney General of Ontario. And who appoints the Attorney General …. The Premier of the Provence. In other words Doug Ford. So instead of ranting and raving why did Ford not call the Attorney General and say “ fix this…now”. He did nothing. Then we have the case of gaggles of thieves walking into LCBO stores in broad daylight filling up huge sacks or shopping carts full of booze and walking right out the front door- AND THE STAFF WATCHES THEM DO IT - and they do nothing. In one case a customer intervened and started throwing haymakers at the thieves and you can plainly hear the LCBO employees telling him to not get involved sir, leave them alone. Rebel News has done a lot of looking into this and I don’t care if you like them or not, they are right about this story. They uncovered that the staff are under orders to not do anything and in fact, if they do intervene they are subject to dismissal because if they injure one of these crooks, the LCBO can be sued. What ??? Rebel News reports that the last time the LCBO released theft stats - they claimed $ 70 million dollars of theft in one year and that was 5 years ago. This is going on all across Ontario and guess who is covering these losses ? You and I, the suckers that pay full price for this stuff. Ford got in front of the cameras and raved on about this issue as well. Then he did….. nothing. Apparently the LCBO do not even contact the police when these thefts occur. This is ridiculous. Why are there not armed police or security in every store with the mandate to get involved. Surely that would cost less than $ 70 million a year in theft. But Doug does nothing but buffoonery on TV. It’s pathetic,
Maybe Doug Ford's dream job is CEO of LCBO. Why doesn't he quit his current job and send them the resume.