Gerard Comeau, a retiree living in rural New Brunswick, never thought his booze run would turn him into a Canadian hero. In 2012, after Comeau had driven to Quebec to purchase cheaper beer and crossed back into his home province, police officers participating in a low-stakes sting operation tailed and detained him, confiscated his haul, and levied a fine of less than $300.

Countries routinely engage in trade wars and erect barriers to protect domestic industries from foreign competition. Comeau, however, was detained by the full force of the law for engaging in commerce with a Canadian business on the other side of a domestic border. With Comeau’s story as its starting point, Booze, Cigarettes, and Constitutional Dust-Ups tells the fascinating tale of Canadian interprovincial trade. Ryan Manucha examines the historical, political, and legal forces that gave rise to the regulation of interprovincial commerce in Canada, the trade-offs that come with liberalized domestic free trade, and Canada’s enduring pursuit of economic union.

The pandemic laid bare the vulnerability of global supply chains, the fickleness of foreign trading partners, and the surprising slipperiness of domestic trade. In a global climate of increasingly isolationist geopolitics, the history and possibility of Canada’s economic union, quirks and all, deserve careful attention.

Ryan Manucha is a widely published author on interprovincial trade. He lives in Toronto.

Ryan Manucha's profile page

“In Booze, Cigarettes, and Constitutional Dust-Ups, Ryan Manucha brilliantly and accessibly writes about the difficult and often bizarre evolution of interprovincial trade in Canada. For decades, politicians and courts have grappled with this issue, often with unsatisfactory results. This important new book gives readers the history of something that is truly (and unfortunately) Canadian — why it is sometimes easier to import something from another country than it is to “import” something from another province.” 2023 Balsillie Prize for Public Policy Jury (Samantha Nutt, Taki Sarantakis, and Scott Young)

“With populist movements and the COVID-19 pandemic challenging globalization and international free trade, the fate of domestic trade within Canada deserves focused attention. Animated and engaging, Manucha’s history of Canadian interprovincial trade is a timely addition to the literature, as well as a welcome addition to my bookshelf.” Rainer Knopff, University of Calgary and co-author of The Court and the Constitution: Leading Cases

“Canada’s economy has been hampered by interprovincial trade barriers for decades, … [Booze, Cigarettes, and Constitutional Dust-Ups] sees reasons for hope the provinces can find more common ground.” Director Journal

“With Booze, Cigarettes, and Constitutional Dust-ups, Ryan Manucha helps explain the history of the internal trade barriers that have led to … head-scratching disparities. Manucha finds a would-be ‘trade-barrier dragon-slayer’ in Gerard Comeau, who in 2013 Was fined for bringing 49 bottles of beer and three bottles of liquor into New Brunswick from Quebec.” Literary Review of Canada