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by midasuni 1475 days ago
Interesting. My first trip outside of Europe was my honeymoon in 2008 to Canada. Various tour guides told us that Tim Hortons (“Timmy’s”) was a Canadian institution.

Since then I’ve travelled a fair bit in US cities and a little in Canada and the only real difference I can see is that Canada has a Tim Hortons on the corner.
2 comments
Marsymars 1475 days ago
I mean, I'd still call it a Canadian institution, but it's not good.

> Since then I’ve travelled a fair bit in US cities and a little in Canada and the only real difference I can see is that Canada has a Tim Hortons on the corner.

Depends where you go. There's probably more of a different cultural feel in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. e.g. Café Olimpico is a Montreal institution that feels quintessentially Montreal. (And the US has places with very different cultural feels to each other - of places I've visited, Honolulu isn't very similar to Billings - but I'm less familiar with the US than Canada.)

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midasuni 1475 days ago
I was amazed by many things with our 3 weeks in Canada, including how cheap car hire for a massive (Ford escape) car was, how wide the roads were, how off road logging roads were

But one thing that stuck with me was seeing things I’d only ever heard of in tv/movies - Wendy’s and Dairy Queen come to mind.

But I’d heard of them. And of course Starbucks (which we had in the U.K.)

Never heard of Tim Hortons though, which I guess shows the relative strength of a medic an cultural exports vs Canadian cultural exports.

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908B64B197 1475 days ago
> There's probably more of a different cultural feel in Quebec

Yes. We acquired something in Montreal a long time ago and yeah, the culture is just completely different.

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9935c101ab17a66 1475 days ago
As a Canadian, this comment annoys me. It only makes sense to me if the only Canadian city you’ve been to is Toronto (and maybe Niagara or something as well?), and aren’t particularly observant.
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spadros 1473 days ago
It annoys you that Tim Horton’s is considered a Canadian institution?

I get that it’s mainly owned by a Brazilian company now, and quality has gone to all hell, but it will probably always be a part of Canadiana due to its history.

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