The USA’s attempt at national prohibition (1919-1933) was plagued with problems-not the least being the ready access to foreign supplies of booze. There was the 3200 mile border with Canada, the 1600 mile one with Mexico, and the French islands (St. Pierre, Miquelon), the British Islands (Bahamas), etc.
All of which offered excellent access to good quality liquors.
My question: what did the foreign governments do (if anything) to restrict their citizens from exporting booze? I was reading that the French Islands mentioned became boom times-Al Capone even visited St. Pierre-so what was the attitude of the French Government-did they say (in effect), “we don’t support this activity, but since no French laws are being broken, its your problem?”. There must have been a lot of jobs in Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, supported by USA booze customers.
For starters, many Canadian provinces (and Newfoundland, which wasn’t a province at the time) were also under prohibition during the USA’s period of prohibition. See here and here. However, the prohibition was not as strict as in the USA—there were more exemptions and loopholes—and almost every Canadian province decided to allow government liquor stores before the 21st Amendment was passed in the USA. (The exception being Prince Edward Island, which doesn’t border the USA anyway.)
You’re asking about the position of the Canadian authorities towards rum-runners. I don’t know what their positions were myself, but I’d wager a guess that the answer is going to depend on two things: first, which authorities are you talking about? Liquor sales were almost always a matter of provincial or municipal jurisdiction in Canada, so you’re talking about the policies of nine provinces, one dominion, and umpteen-hundred local municipalities; the federal government, for the most part, didn’t involve itself with liquor law enforcement. (I think this is closest it came.) Second, when are you talking about? Quebec repealed prohibition around the time that the USA imposed it; Nova Scotia hung on to it until 1930.