OTTAWA – Canadian sentiment against buying American alcohol is higher than a year ago, with new polling done by Nanos exclusively for CTV News showing just under three-quarters of Canadians, or 74 per cent, are not likely to buy the products if they are put back on the shelves.
The Nanos survey of 1,104 Canadians showed 69 per cent of respondents were not likely to resume purchasing American alcohol, with five per cent somewhat unlikely. Seventy-four per cent is an increase since last year, when Nanos found 70 per cent of Canadians were either not likely or somewhat not likely to buy American alcohol.
“We’re not in a holding pattern. They’re not softening up. Actually, it looks like Canadians are digging in their heels when it comes to purchasing American wine and spirits,” Nik Nanos of Nanos Research told CTV News.
Those sentiments are strong right across the country, with the greatest number of British Columbians unlikely or somewhat unlikely to buy American alcohol (80.9 per cent) and the lowest percentage in the Prairies, at a still-high 69.7 per cent.
Alberta and Saskatchewan are the only provinces without bans on American alcohol.
Nanos said the data gives ammunition not just to premiers in provinces maintaining the bans to stand their ground, but to the American booze industry as well.
“A bit of ammunition, if you’re in the American wine, spirits, distillery business to tell the administration, if you want Canadians to buy American wine and spirits, the best path is to get a deal and bring things back to normal,” Nanos said.
Americans have long considered the booze bans to be an irritant in the trade war. U.S. President Donald Trump cited them as one of the reasons behind the newly-threatened 50 per cent tariffs, set to take effect later this month.
On Wednesday, Ontario’s finance minister said that province has no plans to back down.
The research also found older Canadians are more likely to be against purchasing American alcohol.
Seventy-five per cent of Canadians aged 55 and older say they wouldn’t buy American booze if it’s put back on the shelves, compared to 60 per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 34.
“The message perhaps might be, when we get to a place where Canadian-U.S. relations are stable and there’s a free trade agreement, Canadians will probably stop their protest against these iconic things that come from the United States into Canada,” said Nanos.
Methodology:
RDD dual-frame hybrid telephone and online random survey, July 28 to 30, 2026, n=1,104, margin of error ±3.0 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
