I heard a radio ad the other day that left me angry. But likely not for the reasons the sponsor wanted. You see, Beer Canada has launched a new series of radio ads as part of its ongoing campaign against current federal excise duty policy. The ads sound like a low rent mixture of Pierre Poilievre and Donald Trump. “Sneaky”! “Underhanded”! “Undemocratic”! With such outrage you would think the RCMP was rounding up brewers and holding them for ransom.

All this over-the-top rhetoric is over a projected small increase to the federal excise duty on beer. More specifically, Beer Canada takes exception to the decision made in 2017 to automatically increase the excise by the rate of inflation every April. Since that time the excise has increased 16%.

Beer Canada has long opposed this so-called “escalator tax”. They have run ad campaigns about it before, even trotting out Bob and Doug McKenzie to make their anti-tax pitch. I have written about the campaign as well (here and here).

I don’t have an issue with Beer Canada arguing against an increase in the excise tax. It is their job to lobby on behalf of their members – who happen to be the largest beer corporations operating in Canada. What I continue to take exception to is the overheated rhetoric they use to make their case and the highly torqued and very misleading use of statistics to support it.

The current ad campaign has six different versions featuring a masculine voice over, sound effects of pouring beer and the clever tag line “why does the best beer nation have the worst beer taxation?” (you can find them here.) I have transcribed one of the ads featured on their website (the others are variations of the same theme):

“It’s sneaky. Underhanded. They don’t want us to talk about it. But in Canada beer tax increases are automatic. They go up automatically. Yes! Even though at 46% Canada already imposes the highest beer taxes of any country in the G7. Don’t they realize that automatic is not democratic? To help stop it go to hereforbeer.ca. And ask yourself why does the best beer nation have the worst beer taxation?

Where do I start with this?

How about with the tone. It is conspiratorial. It feeds into mistrust of government the same way Trump and Poilievre have made an art form. The government is some sinister, secretive agent trying to hurt us. Worse they are anti-democratic, undermining Canadians’ rights. Really? Undemocratic? It is a technical policy about beer. Get over yourselves.

Then there is their use of the term “beer tax”, as if it is some single, all-encompassing tax on beer and beer alone. There simply is no beer tax in Canada. There are a series of mark-ups and levies at both the provincial and federal level. And also, you know, a little thing known as sales taxes – which apply to literally almost every product for sale in Canada. That is like me buying a meal from McDonald’s and ranting about the Restaurant Tax.

The reason they want to use the catch-all “beer tax” is to let them use their whopper of a statistic. 46% of the price of beer is comprised of taxes. While notionally accurate in the aggregate, it requires quite a bit of twisting, turning and squinting to make it actually work. To their credit, Beer Canada shows their math in a chart at the bottom of their campaign webpage. But it also shows how spurious their claim is. For your convenience I reproduce it here (sorry for the quirky formatting – it is a large table).

First off, these figures are based on the average price of the top ten selling beer SKUs in each province. In other words, beer made by Molson-Coors, AB-Inbev and Sapporo. This detail is crucial, a point I will return to.

One look at the chart makes it clear to get to 46% they have to add every single government levy together. (I also note their table tallies to an average of 45%, not 46%, but that might just be pedantic.) I question the validity of including the GST and provincial sales taxes in this number, as they are applied widely across all economic sectors. It also shows that the provinces take more than three times more in “taxes” than the federal government, the supposed target of the ad campaign. Why isn’t Beer Canada flailing against the anti-democratic Doug Ford or Danielle Smith for their “sneaky” mark-up rates?

But what the table most lays bare for me is the hollowness of their complaint. The campaign is purportedly against the automatic increase in the excise duty. Excise only comprises 6.1% of the price of beer. Since the escalator was introduced it has increased an average of 2% per year. The next increase in April 2026 would increase that (if everything else remains steady) to 6.2%. All of this angst and anger over a rounding error.

To put it into real terms. The current large production beer excise duty is $36.95/hL, or about $3.14 per 24-pack of cans. A 2% increase will add six cents to that total. Six cents!! Is that worthy of accusations of being underhanded and anti-democratic?

Finally, the table also reminds us that this excise duty applies only to the large corporate beer manufacturers. Production under 75,000hL is charged a much lower rate, rising in steps between 92 cents (yes, cents) to $15.71 per hL. There are only a handful of breweries in Canada that produce more than 75,000hL. For the bulk of small breweries in Canada, the excise duty is basically irrelevant. (I do a deeper dive into the excise math here, for those interested in the details).

But, of course, those handful of large breweries dominate the membership of Beer Canada. Thus we see these anger-stoking ads that make wild accusations based on half truths. I understand there is a lot of money at stake for the big breweries. And so I fully understand them working the halls of Parliament to try to persuade MPs to change the policy. What frustrates me is that they choose to draft Canadian beer consumers into their campaign by falsely suggesting they are being harmed by the policy. It is faux-populism and it is dishonest.

Ironically “sneaky” and “underhanded” may more aptly apply to Beer Canada’s campaign than to the government it targets.