Canada’s liquid leverage

Canada’s booze boycott is becoming a potent trade weapon, as talks with the US are spiraling into an all-out trade war.

(Artur Widak/Getty Images) Hey Snackers, The Force is strong with municipal public comment. After nearly a year of unsuccessfully lobbying San Diego officials over the city’s use of Flock surveillance cameras, one resident finally embraced the dark side. Anthony Ralphs, a local events producer, arrived at a city council meeting this month dressed as Darth Vader — cape, mask, mechanical breathing and all — and explained why the Empire would be a big fan of warrantless license-plate surveillance. Stocks finished slightly up on the day. LAST CALL Canada’s booze boycott is becoming a potent trade weapon As negotiations to avert new US tariffs set to be imposed on Canada unfolded over the weekend, one sticking point reportedly crumbled the talks: heads of several provinces did not want to start letting American booze be sold in their territories again.  And we all know what happened next: talks collapsed and the two neighbors are spiraling into an all-out trade war. Starting March 2024, provinces in Canada began banning the sale of US alcoholic beverages, meaning no Jack Daniels whiskey or Barefoot wines on most Canadian liquor store shelves. After more than a year of getting the cold shoulder from Canada, the American booze industry is feeling the heat. Exports of booze from the US to Canada were less than half in 2025 than they were a year earlier. “Canada continues to be a problem as we don't have our product on the shelves up there, at least none of our American made products,” Lawson Whiting, the CEO of Brown-Forman, the maker of Jack Daniels, told analysts on July 23.  In one year, the US wine industry went from having a trade surplus of $254 million to a $90 million trade deficit, according to the Wine Institute.  “For many wineries, Canada wasn’t just another export destination,” the trade group said in a statement in March. “It was the market that made international growth possible.” THE TAKEAWAY The US alcohol industry is not exactly the lifeblood of the US economy. Its annual exports to Canada before the boycott were measured in hundreds of millions of dollars, not billions. But there’s a reason why Trump wants Jack Daniels and Jim Beam on Canadian shelves, even if it means risking the livelihoods of constituencies like farmers or the US auto industry, which have a much bigger impact on the US economy.  Drinking is a cultural, perhaps even performative behavior. You usually drink a beer in front of someone, and whether it’s a Bud Light (pre- or post-Dylan Mulvaney) or an IPA from a local brewer may give off a certain message about you and what you believe. Swapping an American bourbon for a Canadian whisky is therefore a relatively cheap way to make a big statement.  Alcohol is also unusually easy for Canada to weaponize. Provincial governments control much of its distribution, meaning they can effectively make American bottles disappear from store shelves.  So, although it’s not likely to make a big dent in the US economy, Canada has an outsized bargaining chip. And judging by the latest round of negotiations, its provinces aren’t eager to give it up. — J. Edward Moreno Snacks Shots 🏈 NFL: We are officially two weeks away from the kickoff of the NFL season. The Los Angeles Rams are the favorite, with a 17% chance of hosting the Lombardi Trophy* according to markets, followed by Buffalo (9%), Seattle (9%) and Baltimore (8%).   ⚽️ EPL: Meanwhile, the other football kickoff happened last week, with the English Premier League season commencing. There, Arsenal is the favorite (47% chance) to win it all, followed by Manchester City (20%) and Chelsea (16%). *Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC. That’s how much revenue OnlyFans, the platform predominantly used by “spicy accountants,” made in the year ending November 2025, according to the Financial Times.  During that period the company also paid out $700 million in dividends to its now-deceased owner, Leonid Radvinsky. What else we're Snackin' As robotaxis expand into more corners of the country they are getting more and more pushback from regulators, the Verge reports Iceland, a country with almost no homicides, is obsessed with murder novels, the New York Times reports The ‘country hicks’ who refused $26 million from an AI data center Former Lyft drivers are now cleaning Waymo’s, Business Insider reports. This is a similar model Lyft’s CEO described to Sherwood last year Snack Fact of the Day There are now more than 120,000 Flock cameras across 49 states, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report, collectively capturing about 20 billion license plates a month.  Wednesday Abercrombie & Fitch slated to report ahead of the open. Results from Nvidia, Salesforce, Synopsys, Crowdstrike, Okta, HP Inc., and Standard Nuclear due out postmarket. Craving more insights in your inbox? Subscribe to EntryPoint  and Scoreboard for quality reads. Sherwood Media, LLC produces fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and is a fully owned subsidiary of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate... See more Sherwood Terms and Conditions Our Editorial Standards Contact Us Advertise With Us Unsubscribe Privacy Policy SHERWOOD MEDIA, LLC, 85 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025