Good morning, everyone.

Another week, another trade threat from U.S. President Donald Trump.

This week, he took aim at the Gordie Howe International Bridge, the $6.4-billion span between Windsor and Detroit. Relying on some incorrect information about bridge ownership and construction materials, Trump said he was going to block the opening of the border crossing because Canada has “treated the United States very unfairly for decades.”

But then, as Trump is wont to do, he went off on a tangent.

“Ontario won’t even put U.S. spirits, beverages, and other alcoholic products, on their shelves,” he wrote on Truth Social.

While much of Canada’s retaliatory tariffs have been dropped, several provinces still won’t let American wine, beer and spirits cross the border. Ontario, a massive market for U.S. producers, has maintained the ban, with sales dropping 95 per cent since last year when the word tariff ended up on the tip of everyone’s tongue.

In reaction to Trump’s alcohol aside, Ontario Premier Doug Ford had this to say: “It’s obviously working, it’s an irritant.”

However Alberta has gone a different route. Not exactly separatist leaders meeting with state department officials, but the Prairie province lifted its ban on U.S. alcohol last June, and imports have bounced right back to pre-trade war levels.

But that rebound hasn’t been even.

“The wine side of it is pretty dead, there’s barely anybody buying U.S. wine,” said Ivonne Martinez, president of Alberta Liquor Store Association.

It seems, however, if you have a taste for bourbon, the U.S. market is where it’s at.

“Some people avoid American products, but there are people out there who have always been bourbon drinkers and they want that particular flavour profile,” said Adam Koziak, manager of the Chateau Louis Liquor Store in Edmonton.

Ms. Martinez has a theory of her own as to why bourbon sales have been soaring: Ontario drinkers can’t get it at home, and there appears to be a booming interprovincial flow of alcohol from Alberta online retailers to buyers in Eastern Canada.

“They’re selling bourbon like crazy, and a lot of it is being shipped to Ontario, and that could explain why the volume in Alberta has gone up,” she said.

Although Ontario restricts such shipments, and it’s not exactly prohibition era bootlegging, it seems some people just want their Kentucky bourbon.

So if Ontario does lift its U.S. alcohol ban – Ford says he has no intention to do so – some Alberta sellers could stand to lose some business.

And that could be devastating. Although not as devastating as what Trump also warned his northern neighbour about this week.

In the middle of his lengthy post about the bridge, he said that Canada’s trade dealings with China could somehow affect the future of hockey.

“Prime Minister Carney wants to make a deal with China – which will eat Canada alive. We’ll just get the leftovers! I don’t think so,” Trump said. “The first thing China will do is terminate ALL Ice Hockey being played in Canada, and permanently eliminate The Stanley Cup.”

So here’s hoping Connor McDavid and the rest of Team Canada manage to bring home a gold medal. It may be the country’s last.

This is the weekly Alberta newsletter written by Alberta Bureau Chief Mark Iype. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.