True bourbon can only be made south of the border, but a B.C.-made substitute for the iconic, corn-based Kentucky liquor has caught the attention of Canadians seeking homegrown products in response to the Trump administration’s tariffs.

“Every time Donald opens his mouth on tariffs, or when he says even crazier stuff like the 51st state, there are spikes in sales,” said Tyler Dyck, the CEO of Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery, referring to the U.S. president’s broadsides against Canada. The company’s bourbon-style Canadian whisky is selling well at a time when Ottawa is targeting American spirits on its list of retaliatory tariffs—to the chagrin of Kentucky distillers—and some provinces are pulling U.S. products from their liquor stores.

Currently, Dyck ships his whisky only to B.C. residents, but a recent agreement on interprovincial trade could open that market up to patriotic bourbon drinkers across most of the country. Canada’s premiers and Ottawa reached a historic deal last week to dismantle internal trade barriers to counteract the growth-killing effects of U.S. tariffs. Among the changes: new rules allowing wineries, breweries and distilleries to sell their products directly to consumers in most other provinces.

Ryan Manucha, a lawyer and author of Booze, Cigarettes, and Constitutional Dust-Ups, noted alcohol has long been a symbol of the push to liberalize trade within Canada’s borders, as well as government moves to restrict it. Section 121 of the Constitution says goods must be allowed to move freely between provinces, yet alcohol was at the centre of Supreme Court rulings that narrowed its scope.

The most recent was a 2018 decision involving Gerard Comeau, a New Brunswick man who was ticketed for bringing home beer and spirits from Quebec in amounts exceeding the legal maximum at the time. Manucha applauds governments for highlighting an issue that strikes a chord with many Canadians. When he talks about trucking regulations, he said, he can tell he is losing people. Not so with booze. “It’s like the Boston Tea Party,” he said. “I think it’s brilliant to use that as the symbol of action being taken on internal trade.”

It has taken a long time to reach this point, but there is work to do before the latest move to liberalize alcohol laws and sales across Canada starts boosting profits for producers. “We’re always super optimistic when we see these positive announcements, but we remain somewhat skeptical until we see the details behind it,” said Corinne Pohlmann, executive vice-president of advocacy at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. 

Dyck, the B.C. distiller, said the agreement is just the first step. He worries provincial liquor boards will move to protect their long-standing source of revenue. “I like the idea of direct-to-consumer, but the practical application is going to be extremely difficult,” he said. “The monopolies in each province are not gonna give up their lollipops.”

Canada has a patchwork of provincial liquor boards, each with their own rules and restrictions on alcohol sales. In 2012, Parliament passed a private member’s bill from Conservative MP Dan Albas to remove federal restrictions on moving wine between provinces for personal use, which it eventually extended to beer and spirits. Direct-to-consumer sales, though, remained an exception rather than the rule.

Quebec and Ontario currently do not allow them at all. Manitoba is the only province to permit them without any interprovincial restrictions. Every province except Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador have pledged to change that as part of the agreement.

Busting down barriers to interprovincial trade on goods alone has the potential to increase Canada’s real GDP by 3.8 per cent, according to one estimate. Alcohol would be just a drop in that productivity bucket, but making it easier to buy booze could still be a boon to those who sell it. Shea Coulson, a partner at Vancouver-based law firm Harris & Company who has represented the wine industry, said smaller California wineries got a boost after a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowed more direct-to-consumer sales across state lines. “It actually completely changed the wine industry in California and allowed it to expand massively,” he said. 

He also noted the risk of losing revenue from alcohol sales may discourage some provinces. Mark Hicken, a retired lawyer who is now a consultant to the B.C. wine and liquor industry, said markups to the sales could make them not worth the effort. “What I’m worried about is that they will do something that is either too expensive or practically unworkable from the perspective of consumers and wineries,” he said.

A recent deal allowing direct-to-consumer wine sales between Alberta and B.C. is an example of how negotiations with provincial liquor boards might complicate things. The deal began not with a commitment to liberalize trade, but a spat over tax collection. Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis threatened to block wholesale shipments from B.C. wineries selling directly to Alberta consumers and stop stocking their products, arguing they were skirting taxation by cutting the agency out as a middleman.

The ultimate agreement said approved B.C. wineries could resume shipping to Alberta customers—provided they pay an administrative fee, sales tax and a container and recycling fee. Lauren Skinner Buksevics, director of sales and marketing at Painted Rock Estate Winery in Penticton, B.C., said she and other small wineries opposed the size of the fee.

The amount to be collected by provincial liquor boards will be crucial to the success of the Canada-wide deal, Skinner Buksevics said. “As much as it’s exciting to hear the willingness, the details are important,” she said. “We need to know what the markups are going to be.”

Asked whether they will advocate for collecting fees from alcohol producers under the interprovincial direct-to-consumer agreement, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario referred The Logic to the Ontario Ministry of Finance. Alberta liquor commission spokesperson Karin Campbell said the provincial government is responsible for the agreement. Linda Bouchard, a spokesperson for the Société des alcools du Québec, said in an email that the liquor board “can’t answer these questions at this time.” 

Despite the possible roadblocks, Debbie Etsell, co-owner of Singletree Winery in B.C.’s Fraser Valley, said she was excited about the agreement. Her winery is on the way to the Abbotsford airport, so she gets a lot of visitors heading home to other provinces—and she’d love to be able to tell them she can ship wine right to their doors.

“It just makes so much sense that we should be able to buy Canadian in Canada without too many regulations,” she said.