It was not long after Hiram Walker established his distillery in Detroit in 1858 that the Prohibition movement began to gain momentum so he decided to move his distillery across the river to Ontario, allowing the wily entrepreneur to create his model town of Walkerville and thus house a community to produce the "Club Whisky". Later, a petition was raised to have "Canadian" included in the name so as to distinguish it from American distillers.

During the Prohibition era in the US, Al Capone smuggled thousands of cases of Canadian Club across the border: since then, it has received royal warrants and is instantly recognisable across the globe.