05/22/2026
On a besoin d’une approche nationale pour le vin: une approche qui considère les régions viticoles canadiennes comme des partenaires qui bâtissent ensemble une industrie nationale, et non comme des concurrents étrangers traversant les frontières provinciales.
Merci Painted Rock.
What if I told you that provincial governments controlled grocery stores and chose to stock mostly imported beef instead of beef raised by Canadian ranchers because it was cheaper?
Most Canadians would find that unacceptable.
We would expect Canadian-grown and Canadian-raised products to at least have a fair opportunity to compete on our own shelves.
And yet, that is effectively what is happening in wine.
Canadian farmers are growing grapes here in Canada. Canadian wineries are producing world-class wines here in Canada. Yet provincially controlled liquor systems continue to overwhelmingly favour imported wines because they deliver stronger direct margins to the retailer.
What gets lost in that equation is the broader economic impact.
Canadian wine generates approximately 5x more economic impact than imported wine through agriculture, tourism, hospitality, manufacturing, transportation, and rural employment.
And still:
• In five provinces, premium Canadian VQA wines account for less than 5% of total wine sales.
• In Quebec, Canada’s largest per capita wine-consuming province, domestic wine accounts for approximately 0.025% of total wine sales.
This is not about protectionism or limiting consumer choice.
It is about recognizing Canadian wine as a high-value agricultural product and giving Canadian producers a fair opportunity to compete in their own country.
We need a Team Canada approach to wine — one that treats Canadian wine regions as partners building a national industry together, not as outside competitors crossing provincial borders.
**Please link, share or comment if you agree. Let’s make sure the people that need to see this see this.