WINNIPEG — Manitoba’s premier says he is open to returning U.S. booze to provincial shelves but wonders how reliable any deal will be with a U.S. president known for breaking his word.

Wab Kinew made the comments on Winnipeg radio station 680 CJOB Thursday morning as Canada and the United States work to finalize a new trade deal to ward off further punishing tariffs on Canadian goods.

It reportedly includes a better deal on steel tariffs, which Kinew acknowledged would benefit the Gerdau steel mill in Selkirk, Man., and other workers in the industry.

But he said he would rather keep pushing to remove tariffs entirely than cut a bad deal.

“If I were leading the country, I’d fight. I think we should fight this guy,” he told the station.

Multiple news reports have said the deal will see the U.S. lower sectoral tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal both reported the duties would be reduced from the current 50 per cent levels to 25 per cent.

“It might be lower, but … it’s way higher than it was two years ago before Trump was in office,” Kinew said.

He said Prime Minister Mark Carney is also asking premiers to return U.S. liquor to their shelves in return.

Kinew said Manitoba still has to see some details, but if the booze goes back on shelves, his government reserves the right to pull it back off again if U.S. President Donald Trump changes terms.

“We know that this guy’s very erratic, the American president, and he may go back on his word, as he’s done countless times.”

Other Prairie provinces put U.S. alcohol back on the shelf long ago.

Alberta had taken U.S. booze off store shelves in March of last year — in line with the other provinces — but dropped the ban three months later. The government said at the time that selling products from south of the border again showed a “renewed commitment to open and fair trade.”

Saskatchewan briefly implemented a ban in March 2025, but reversed course two months later.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 20, 2026.

Ian Bickis, The Canadian Press