Timmy's

I'd never heard of it before coming to Canada, but here, it's synonymous with coffee. People get very emotional about it. Last week they opened a branch for the troops in Afghanistan. This week they're in the news again, they have their IPO and it's the headline story. CBC interviewing people in the street, hearing them say with a straight face that they drink Tim Horton's coffee because they're proud to be Canadian... You really shouldn't pay too much attention to that stuff about Canada and Europe sharing core values. Canadians are much more like Americans than they like to think. Wrapping themselves in the flag comes naturally to Canadians. The people behind Tim Horton's know this, and exploit it. They sponsor 'community' programmes (giving hockey sticks to poor kids, that kind of thing) and advertise off the back of this.

And just who are the people behind Tim Horton's? Giant US junk food chain Wendy's, that's who. Not so Canadian after all, eh? And where do they stand on genuine 'values'? Fair trade coffee? Nope. Organic, shade grown? Nu-uh. Recycling waste in their branches? Not that I've noticed. The fact is, compared to other coffee chains, even the evil Starbucks itself, Timmy's scores very low on corporate social responsibility. Where it scores high is on a uniform product sold in uniform branches on every street corner in the country, at a consistently low price. Quantity over quality, price over principles. But, after a couple of years here, I'm beginning to think these are core Canadian values.

More on this another day...

Details: Nikon D70, 18-200 lens with zoom burst, 1/6s, f/6.3, ISO 800. Bank Street, downtown Ottawa, this evening. Placemark.