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Alberta’s boycott of B.C. wines could have an unintended effect of raising sales across the rest of Canada.

Yesterday (February 7), Premier Rachel Notley announced Alberta would ban wine imports from B.C. The boycott is in response to Premier John Horgan ordering additional reviews of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline project that will likely delay construction.

Albertans spend about $70 million a year on B.C. wines and so the boycott could really hurt West Coast vineyards. But now wine drinkers in other provinces are pledging to purchase the grapes that Albertans don’t want.

“Ottawa residents have staged a #BCwine buycott in response to Alberta Premier Rachel Notley’s announcement,” reads a 350 Canada Facebook post. “Her plan has backfired and now people across the country have been going out to buy BC wine, and posting selfies using the hashtag #toastthecoast. That’s because not only is BC wine great, but also because people across Canada respect science, Indigenous rights, our climate, and all of the local businesses that support communities from coast to coast.”

Even further east, residents of Quebec are buying B.C. wines and posting photographs of their purchases with the hashtag “#QCLovesBCWine”.

“Let's go buy wine en masse from the west coast to show our support for the opposition to Kinder Morgan,” reads a Facebook page in support of that campaign (translated from French).

A video posted on the Ontario group’s Facebook page shows a small crowd of pipeline opponents purchasing every bottle of B.C. wine that was available in the liquor store they visited.

“We officially cleaned them out,” a woman says. “They don’t have any B.C. wine left.”

Today (February 7) Horgan said that B.C. would not respond to Notley’s wine boycott with any punitive move against commodities exported from Alberta.

"I don't think it's in anyone's interests to have dueling premiers,” he told reporters.