Strong leadership or political theatre? Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s attack Tuesday on international booze corporation Diageo can be seen either way.

The premier was in a fury over the company’s plan to eliminate a Crown Royal whisky bottling plant in Amherstburg, Ont. at the cost of about 200 local jobs, most of them unionized.

Ford certainly created a media moment when he poured out a bottle of Crown Royal at a press conference and threatened the company by saying, “You hurt my people, I’m gonna hurt you.” The company was “as dumb as a bag of hammers” for making the decision, Ford added

It was an elbows-up response that offered a sharp contrast to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s policy of making concessions to the U.S. government in exchange for nothing.

The problem is Diageo’s move se

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