The other day, the people who put The Torontonian together met at their favourite bar – just as the bartender took down a blackboard listing about a dozen kinds of bourbon.

It inspired this week’s episode about one of the most high-profile targets of Canada’s retaliatory tariffs against the U.S.

For bourbon expert Lucas Twyman, the drama hits close to home. Growing up in Kentucky, bourbon was the drink of choice – and as a budding connoisseur, collecting rare bourbons became a kind of sport.

Today, Lucas is a Canadian citizen. He tells us why bourbon, with its strict rules and new oak barrels, is the perfect metaphor for the cooling relationship between the two countries he considers home.