Good morning.

Bottles of Jack Daniel’s, Jim Beam and Bulleit Bourbon began disappearing from liquor store shelves in British Columbia on Sunday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was following through on his threat to impose a 25-per-cent tariff on all Canadian imports into his country.

In retaliation, B.C. planned to remove alcohol from its government-run stores that originated in “red states” such as Kentucky, states with Republican legislators who, Canada hopes, would be hearing from their citizens as sales dry up.

Because of the monopoly provincial governments hold on liquor purchases and distribution, yanking U.S. booze was an easy place to start for retaliation: Ontario announced it would halt sales of all American booze. The province is one of the world’s largest single purchasers of alcohol, selling about $1-billion worth of U.S. liquor a year.

Quebec and Manitoba said they’d do the same.

But President Trump’s decision Monday to pause the tariffs for a month meant provinces held off on those threats. The well-established brands are to return to B.C. liquor store shelves.

Soon. Ish.

“There’s not a huge rush to put the bottles back on the shelves,” B.C. Premier David Eby said at a news conference late Monday afternoon.

“Ultimately they will be back there,” he said vaguely.

Eby had also pledged Sunday to ensure B.C.’s Crown corporations and health authorities stop buying U.S. goods and services.

On Monday morning, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said his province would scrap a $100-million deal with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet provider. With news of the tariff reprieve, Ford walked that back. But Quebec Premier François Legault said Quebec would be reviewing its deal with Starlink.

Eby said his province will no longer consider Starlink to bring high-speed internet to rural and remote communities. BC Ferries declined to answer a question about what it will do with its pilot project with Starlink to determine if the satellite network could provide reliable WiFi on routes with little or no internet connectivity through a regular signal.

Musk, the world’s richest man who has become an integral insider to Trump’s fledgling administration, appeared unperturbed.

“Oh well,” he said on his social-media site X after Ford announced Ontario’s deal was off.

The month-long reprieve staves off the certain pain the tariffs will cause, especially for British Columbia’s forest industry which would have to shoulder the 25-per-cent levy on top of the 14-per-cent punitive levy the U.S. had already imposed last year as part of the softwood lumber dispute.

But there was neither relief nor pleasure in Eby’s voice Monday when the halt on the tariff plan was announced.

While Canada’s retaliatory measures are also paused, Eby said the rupture in the relationship won’t be repaired any time soon. Canada and British Columbia need to act accordingly.

For decades, British Columbia has vowed to wean itself off its reliance on the U.S. as its main trading partner. That has been unsuccessful: In 1987, five years after the softwood lumber dispute began, the province’s share of exports heading south was 46 per cent. Ten years later, it was 55 per cent, then 60 per cent in 2007. By July of this year, the figure was just more than half.

Eby is once again saying diversifying British Columbia’s economy needs to be a priority.

“Americans are our friends. They are our allies, they are our family. This has been a profoundly awful experience to go through,” Eby said.

“These unilateral actions have changed our relationship for the forseeable future.”

This is the weekly British Columbia newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.