Legendary comedian Dan Aykroyd poses with a bottle of his Crystal Head Vodka in this file photo. The actor has said a U.S. ban on Canadian alcohol will kill his business.
Canadian comedian Dan Aykroyd warns U.S. alcohol ban will ‘kill’ Crystal Head Vodka and Signal Hill Whisky
Aykroyd says the U.S. ban on Canadian alcohol imports will force him to shut down or operate at a loss. The vodka is produced in Newfoundland using peaches and cream corn from Chatham, Ont.
Dan Aykroyd says a new U.S. ban on Canadian alcohol will destroy his Crystal Head Vodka — made with Ontario corn and produced in Newfoundland — leaving him with two choices — shut everything down or operate at a loss.
Crystal Head Vodka, which comes in a skull-shaped glass bottle, is made in Newfoundland and crafted from peaches and cream corn from Chatham.
The vodka, which retails at the LCBO for $54.95 a bottle, comes in a 750-millilitre container, which doesn’t meet the criteria to be exempt from U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest ban.
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Aykroyd also is a partial owner and co-creator of Signal Hill Canadian Whisky, which is made with Canadian corn, barley and water from Newfoundland.
It is also impacted by the U.S. alcohol ban.
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Aykroyd’s two choices: shut down or operate at a loss
Aykroyd — known for appearing on “Saturday Night Live,” “Ghostbusters” and the “Blues Brothers” — called the new ban a “massive issue” between the U.S. and Canada in a CNN interview.
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“This ban will indeed ‘kill the Head,’ basically, it will ‘kill the Head,’” Aykroyd said from his Kingston location. “I will have two choices: one is to just shut down everything, layoff employees and abrogate all the great relationships and partners we’ve had in the States.”
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The other choice is to keep the business going at a loss, he said.
“It will resemble some Soviet collectivist failed state enterprise. That’s not capitalism, that’s communism.”
Aykroyd added “the Head will die.”
Why Aykroyd says the U.S. alcohol ban goes against a ‘collective cultural sovereignty’
He said Canadians and the U.S. each have their own patriot sovereignty, but we have a collective cultural sovereignty.
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“We watch the same movies, listen to the same music, same television, same media. We eat the same food, speak the same language for business,” Aykroyd said.
He also said fans of Crystal Head Vodka love the skull-shaped bottle, and showed off some of the bottles that had been painted in camouflage, black onyx, and gold.
Aykroyd said he’d be willing to pay a fair tariff, and was hopeful Trump would continue to negotiate with Canadian politicians.
Why is the U.S. banning Canadian imports?
Starting Sept. 29, 2026, the U.S. banned several Canadian-made products which include alcohol, motorcycles, molasses and some dairy products, using Section 338 of the U.S. Tariff Act, or the Smoot-Hawley Act.
It’s part of the ongoing tariff war, and is a reaction to Ontario’s ban on U.S.-made alcohol, which has impacted booze such as Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey, Jim Beam Kentucky Bourbon or SKYY Vodka — which was pulled from LCBO shelves in 2025.
U.S.-based bourbon maker Jim Beam has paused production at a Kentucky plant for 2026, while the Jack Daniels whiskey company has also laid off workers, and closed Kentucky and Alabama plants due to what it called changing consumer trends and tariffs.
The U.S. ban on alcohol does come with an exemption — whiskey and liqueurs in containers over four litres are still allowed. Those sizes are also exempt from tariffs.
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