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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2005-09-01, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2005. PAGE 5. Other Views You say soy latte, I say double-double l like Canadians. They are so unlike Americans. They go home at night. Their cigarettes don’t smell bad. Their hats fit. - Ernest Hemingway rnie was just a young Toronto Star cub reporter goofing around on his manual typewriter when he tapped out those lines, but I think he was onto something. Canadians really are different from Americans. Look at how we order a cup of coffee. The American preferred, Paris-Hilton-sanctioned approach entails swanning into a fern- bedecked grotto strewn with overstuffed chairs and placing your 'order' with someone who answers to the job description of 'barista'. You give the barista your order - say. a triple-shot macchiato with half-soy, half two-percent, a sprinkle of cinnamon and hold the foam. Then you sign a lien on your Volvo to pay for it. And the Canadian approach? The Canadian - the true Canadian - shuffles up to the counter, lays down a loonie and mumbles. "Gimme a double-double."' Yes, I sing of Tim Hortons, or rather of the Milky Way of Tim Hortons outlets that bespeckle this far-flung land. Sturdy, glittering neon oases that beckon like alluring sirens to hungry/thirsty/strung-out Canadian wayfarers from Port-aux-Basques to Prince Rupert and from Whitehorse to Windsor. Tim Hortons. I’m so old I can remember when the very first Tim Hortons opened — on Ottawa Street in Hamilton, Ontario. It was 1964. The Beatles were on Ed Sullivan. Khrushchev was getting the boot in Russia, Being black not always Being black is not always a handicap — the departing Speaker of the Ontario legislature was helped by it. Alvin Curling, who was born in Jamaica, has resigned after only two years in the post to wind down his career in sunnier comfort as ambassador to the Dominican Republic. He is being praised for overcoming the “burden” of being a black in politics. Blacks still are treated unfairly in many areas of life, but being black did not hinder Curling in politics. His biggest task, and he deserves credit for it, was persuading the Liberals to nominate him as a candidate in 1985, because few blacks had the backgrounds and resources to be nominated in seats they had a chance of winning. When David Peterson’s Liberals won government, Curling was the first black MPP in a governing party and a marked man almost as sure of getting in cabinet as Peterson himself. The only previous black MPP was another Liberal, Leonard Braithwaite, in the 1960s when their party was in opposition. He is remembered mostly for two events, both related to race. A small clique of rowdy Progressive Conservative backbenchers yelled “watermelons” while he was making a speech, showing some politicians had surprising insensitivity toward visible minorities comparatively recently. Braithwaite also attended the legislature rarely, but news media steered clear of mentioning it, worried they might be seen as racist. Peterson quickly named Curling minister of housing, a senior post, and boasted he had Ontario’s first black minister and was a great Arthur Black just as Dief the Chief was here in Canada. And at Tim Hortons you could buy just two things: a cup of coffee and/or a doughnut. For a dime apiece. I'm even older than that - I can remember when Tim Horton was a man, not a coffee shop. A brush-cut, lantern-jawed, bullet­ eyed defenseman in the National Hockey League, was Mister Horton. For 17 seasons he anchored the blue line for the Toronto Maple Leafs, until his sudden death in 1974. He was killed in a head-on car crash, driving to Buffalo for a game against the Sabres. Popular all-star that he was. Horton collected far more fans as an eatery than he did as a hockey player. By the late ’80s, the franchise was offering drive-through lanes and a lot more than Dutchies and apple fritters. In 1988 the word ‘Donuts’ was quietly removed from all Tim Hortons signs. By then, they were also selling muffins, hot soups, chilies and a whole range of ‘grab ‘n go’ munchies. Not that they forgot their roots. Tims still offered doughnuts. Only now there were 63 varieties. And the Canadian love affair with the name just kept growing. That single coffee shop in Hamilton back in 1964 was such a hit they opened a couple more. By 1991 Tim Hortons executives were cutting the ribbon across the friend of visible minorities, but also recognized he would offend blacks if he left out one of their own. But Curling struggled and Peterson demoted him to minister of training and development, where he also was in over his head. Peterson eventually fired him from cabinet with four other ministers who had involvements, in Curling’s case only minor, with party fundraiser Patti Starr, who broke election law. Curling clearly had a lackluster ministerial career, but Peterson showed a spot of courage, because minorities were increasingly vocal and some believed Curling as a black could never be dropped from cabinet. When Dalton McGuinty regained government for the Liberals in 2003, Curling got word he planned to put a newly-elected black, Mary Anne Chambers, in cabinet and scrambled to be first to announce he would run for Speaker, often a consolation prize for those who fail to get in cabinet. , Several other MPPs, Liberals and Conservatives, would have liked the post, but a coalition of blacks said it was time Ontario had a black Speaker and it would symbolize a more tolerant province and assist the growing debates on gang warfare and racial profiling, and no MPP could be seen trying to block the appointment of Ontario’s first black Speaker. front door of the country's 500th Tim Hortons restaurant. Less than a decade later, they opened Canada’s 2,000th outlet - in the year 2000, fittingly enough. Ah, but what happens with all great Canadian innovations? Most of them - be they John Kenneth Galbraith or Pamela Anderson; the Canadarm or Canada Dry Ginger Ale - get sucked up and re-located in that giant capitalist corral to the south, the US of A. And so it has been with the Tim Hortons phenomenon. It was such a success it attracted the attention of the mega giant Wendy’s chain, which scooped it up in 1995. An all-too familiar scenario:US Great White Shark gobbles up Canadian minnow - end of story. But a funny thing happened on the way to the cash register. The minnow turned into a man-eater. In the first quarter, the Tim Hortons franchise turned in 60 per cent of the corporation’s profit. Wendy’s only accounted for 40 per cent. Now, Tim Hortons is expanding into the U.S. Already there are 250 TH outlets south of the border. Within three years that number will double. And here at home. Tim Hortons is so entrenched it has entered the language. Grab a copy of the latest edition of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary and look up ‘double­ double’. It’s defined as the way to order an extra-cream, extra-sugar cup of coffee at Tim Hortons. As I write you can order a double-double at any one of 2,755 stores in Canada. The company reported sales of $2.9 billion last year. And it all started out with a hockey player. How Canadian can you get? a handicap The post is mostly ceremonial, but Speakers traditionally have to prevent MPPs calling each other nasty names including liars and frauds, because it inflames passions and slows down the legislature. But Curling went too far. Among many examples, he ordered a Conservative MPP to withdraw a charge McGuinty 'betrayed the public trust’ by breaking a promise. Curling disallowed a question by another Conservative who charged the government “suppressed” a report on drinking and driving, but after the Tories walked out of the legislature changed his mind and allowed it. When a New Democrat held up a document he said supported his argument, Curling called it a “prop” that was prohibited by legislature rules, but often permitted Liberal ministers to flourish papers. NDP house leader Peter Kormos introduced a motion to remove Curling as Speaker on the grounds he lacked judgment and favoured the Liberals, but it was never debated. An organization of blacks hushed up critics by warning it was an attack on both Curling and the black community as a whole and few MPPs would have risked voting for it. Getting started in politics is tougher for blacks, but once they are in the path can be smooth. Final Thought The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man’s foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher. - Thomas Henry Huxle Bonnie Gropp The short of it There goes summer Well in retrospect at^least that’s certainly gone quickly. Our son returned from his summer out to sea this past weekend, though not quite as soon as anticipated thanks to a little interruption from nothing anymore significant than a hurricane. He departed the end of May to work on a cruise ship. It was a wonderful experience for him, at least that’s what 1 kept reminding myself. Even though a parent might be excited when their child embarks on an adventure, it can raise mixed feelings. At the offset, the 13 weeks loomed before me and for the first time in my life, I knew that I would be fighting myself not to hurry my summer. Despite my best efforts, of course, it happened anyway. This weekend Labour Day arrives. And while officially there are three more weeks of summer left, let’s face it folks, it’s all downhill from here. People start talking about fall being in the air, the leaves begin their colourful descent into obliteration and the days of light grow noticeably shorter. Labour Day is a bittersweet holiday. In sentiment it marks the end of summer, the final day before a new school year begins, the first weekday in the month of harvest and fall. And we all know as Maxwel Anderson and Kurt Weill wrote, ... “the days grow short when you reach September.” But, there’s probably no other holiday better suited to the idea of a day of leisure. It was created, after all, for those who labour - the often under-appreciated working stiffs. In April 1872 Canadian society first recognized organized labour with a workingman’s demonstration in Toronto. In September of that year members of seven unions in Ottawa organized a parade as well, headed by a band and flanked by city firefighters. Pressure for legislation to set aside a day that would honour those who labour was exerted on government and in 1894 Labour Day came to be with the first official parade in Winnipeg. So we got our day, but there aren’t many rallies or parades to mark the holiday anymore. Typically, the first Monday of September is taken by Canadians as a time to relax and savour the final glow of summer. With the exception of when I was a young child, when going back to school meant some new clothes and pencil crayons I’ve generally found Labour Day to be a bit of a downer. As a teen, new duds were poor compensation for what was the end of freedom and a return to the rules and regulations that went hand in hand with education. As an adult I was never eager to see my kids return to school in September. 1 enjoyed their company and it was seldom I found them underfoot or in my hair. So 1 dragged myself around for the whole school shopping day, enjoying my time with them, yet secretly mourning their vacation’s end as well as giving silent acknowledgement that with their entry into a new grade, they were one step closer to future independence. Then too, I recall years ago when our family owned a trailer, the reluctant packing, draining and boarding up for the season. Labour Day then wasn’t just goodbye to summer but goodbye to our summer friends Yet I guess, such is life. And this year, though time’s quick passage meant goodbye too soon to summer yet again, at least it did bring home my boy.