At the LCBO liquor store near Parliament in Ottawa, an employee was carefully removing bottles of E&J brandy, an American label, from the shelves and stacking them gently in a shopping cart.

Next he moved to the American Whiskey section to gingerly remove bottles of Kentucky bourbon. There was a melodious clink as he stacked bottles of 94-proof Elijah Craig in his metal cart.

It was not yet lunchtime on Tuesday. Just down the road in Parliament, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was still on his feet at a news conference expressing ire about President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Canadian goods.

That morning, Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s office had told the Liquor Control Board of Ontario – the province’s largest liquor store – to stop selling American alcohol in retaliation.

Already in the LCBO near Parliament, shoppers were responding to the tariffs by skirting the California wine section in favour of Ontario or European vintages, and buying six-packs of Canadian beer, rather than American cold ones.

Among them was Pamela Johnston who was shopping for an evening of wine and aperitifs with friends. Instead of a California Pinot Grigio, she chose a South African vintage, and a bottle of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. She also made a rare visit to the Ontario wine section, to pick up two bottles of Jackson-Triggs Sauvignon Blanc (made on the Canadian side of Niagara) in support of Ontario viticulture.

“I am not buying American,” she said. “What has been done has made me look for Canadian products in every way, which before I did not. I never thought to look at Ontario wines.”

At the checkout, Ms. Johnston politely inquired why the store’s extensive collection of California wines had yet to be taken off the shelf, to be told by the cashier that the task of removing American products was a big one.

LCBO’s press office said the enterprise could take hours.

The Elgin Street store had already removed bottles of American rum, leaving Ontario’s Dunrobin cask-aged rum standing lonely on the shelf. The California wine section’s hours were numbered.

Helen Murphy, who was shopping for wine, said she occasionally buys a bottle of American bourbon, but would for now studiously avoid American labels.

Ms. Murphy thought that removing bottles of American wine from the shelves was a worthwhile symbolic gesture.

“At this point we need to do everything we can to tell our American friends they can’t keep doing this to us,” she said.

She chose a Spanish Rioja and a punchy Greek red from Nemea, the location of the Greek hero Hercules’ first labour, dispatching a marauding golden-furred lion.

Fellow customer Grant Smith had just made a patriotic purchase of Canadian-brewed Coors Light from the LCBO’s “domestic” beer fridge – rather than the American-brewed variety.

He said he was not going to buy U.S.-made booze while White House tariffs hurt Canada.

“I think it’s important as Canadians to show our displeasure not with the American people but with President Trump,” he said. “I don’t think we should have to remove products from our closest trade partner but it’s important to push them in any way we can. It’s not something we take pleasure in doing.”

At another branch of the LCBO in Ottawa’s central Hintonburg neighbourhood, staff were making slow progress filing through lists of American wines and spirits and laboriously packing them into boxes.

By mid-afternoon, shoppers after American Bourbon – including Wild Turkey Rare Breed under lock and key at $68 a bottle – would not have been short of choice.

But gone from the shelves was Trim Cabernet Sauvignon, a fruity red from the Napa Valley; gone was Mer Soleil Reserve Chardonnay from Monterey County.

The vintage wine section had empty spaces, too, where bottles from California and Washington State had stood the day before.

Law student Shwipti Ranade, shopping for drinks to celebrate her mother’s visit from abroad, said she was “100 per cent” behind Ontario’s decision to take American booze off the shelves in response to Mr. Trump’s “unfair tariffs.”

She said she and her classmates, who had been discussing their response to the tariffs that morning, all wanted to show solidarity with Mr. Ford’s aims. So, tucking a six-pack of Canadian cider under her arm, she headed for the checkout, and Ottawa’s snowy streets.