Premier Doug Ford is escalating his fight with spirits giant Diageo, vowing to pull Crown Royal and other popular brands from LCBO shelves if the company follows through on plans to shutter a bottling facility in southwestern Ontario.Speaking in Quebec on Monday, Ford said the province will remove Crown Royal from stores “as soon as the last person leaves that plant,” referring to Diageo’s Amherstburg bottling facility. The closure, announced earlier this year, is expected to result in the elimination of approximately 200 jobs as the company relocates some operations to the United States.“Then we’ll look at Smirnoff. Smirnoff’s next. That’s what happens when you try to undermine the people of Ontario,” the premier said.Diageo, one of the world’s largest alcohol producers, also owns a range of well-known brands, including Johnnie Walker, Guinness, Baileys, and Captain Morgan. The company has announced that it will continue to produce Crown Royal in Canada, maintaining its Canadian headquarters and warehouse operations in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), as well as its bottling and distillation facilities in Manitoba and Quebec.“These large corporations are going to be held accountable,” Ford added.Background on disputeCrown Royal is one of the LCBO’s top-selling whiskies, and Smirnoff is among the most popular vodka brands in Ontario.Ford’s comments mark the latest escalation in a dispute that began in September, when he reacted angrily to Diageo’s announcement of the Amherstburg closure. At the time, Ford staged a symbolic protest by pouring out a bottle of Crown Royal during a press conference, urging Ontarians to boycott the brand.Ford said he had asked Diageo if there were incentives Ontario could provide to keep the jobs, but company officials declined. He called the decision “as dumb as a bag of hammers” and accused the company of abandoning Ontario workers.Diageo has stated that the move was a difficult but necessary decision to improve supply chain efficiency, and pledged to work with Unifor and local officials to support affected employees during the transition.With files from 680 NewsRadio’s Richard Southern