dbd33

No, it's not much $2 or $3 a week for weekends only but it's not free.

dbd33

I don't assume that. The advert makes reference to the grandfather's arrival, I'll try to catch the exact phrase next time they show it. In any case his fractured stereotypical English suggests immigration. If we suppose the son to be thirty at the time of the narrative and the grandson to have been born in Canada, the family arrived in about 1970. We're not told where thay came from, they're Asian but, for we all know, they could have arrived from Jamaica.


I care about Tim Horton's only to the extent that their adverts are sickly and their stores ugly; a blight on the landscape. I suppose it's wrong to buy coffee there in the same way that it's wrong to go to Starbucks or Wal-Mart, we should try to support local business, but I'm not highly excited about that.

If they are Inuit then the idea of assimilating them goes beyond being a tacky homily to being a hideous political statement. Still, I think it's pretty clear that the older generation are immigrants.

oceanMDX

I just saw the Tim Horton's commercial in question .... it's totally harmless and certainly not offensive to Chinese-Canadians. It uses humor which obviously went right over your head.

dbd33

I don't see anything wrong with anyone posting but I don't think it holds that "cradle Canadians" are useful informants about the "lifestyle & culture" of Canada. They may very well not have been exposed to anything else.

For example, in my years of living with the Newfie we went down east countless times and met many people who had never left the rock. Similarly we met Newfies in Scarborough who have never been anywhere except Scarborough and Fort McMurray. None of these people would be able to compare life in Canada to life in other modern western nations, that takes travel and, in the case of the US, the differences are so subtle that one may travel back and forth for years without noticing them.

If your "cradle Canadian" is Mark Bonokowski or Romeo Dallaire then, fair enough, but if it's Don Cherry or Stephen Harper, then no, the convenience store guy is a better source.

dbd33

I'm not a Chinese-Canadian so I can't comment on whether or not it's offensive to them. However, it's mildly offensive to me. Please explain the subtle humour.

dbd33

Cor, then you were brilliant in observing :

'It's only another silly commercial - and nothing more. It says nothing about the "Canadian psyche"'

without even seeing it.

oceanMDX

Most of the "cradle Canadians" posting on this forum have extensive experience across Canada in addition to international experience. I have resided in Ontario, Newfoundland, Alberta and BC, and visited nearly every city and town in the country. Beyond that, I have resided in (not merely visited) Daytona Beach Shores (Florida), La Jolla (California), Nassau (The Bahamas) and Cabo San Lucas (Mexico). So I have resided in four countries over the last 10 years. Just how many countries have you resided in - and not merely visited?

sysclp

I post here because there is no "Alabama Expats" forum out there. :-) I found the immigration forum a good source of info when I was in the application process, and have stayed around since as I enjoy the different views here.

oceanMDX

Yes indeed, TV commercials never are indicative of some deeper national meaning. They reflect the ideas of a few people involved with the production of the commercial and that is all. Neither of us even knows where the commercial was produced. Tim Horton's has restaurants in the US too you know. Perhaps the commercial was written and produced in the US by Americans. Tim Horton's is owned by a US corporation after all.

The only thing certain here is that your insistance that this commercial on TV says something about the "Canadian psyche" is totally absurd. There is no such thing as "the Canadian psyche" to start with.

dbd33

I don't think you're a cradle Canadian in dingbat's terms and, of course, one example would not make the general case, especially not given that you seem to have lived in series of gated communities. I used to commute to La Jolla with a sick child and even worked there for six months; it aint got much in common with Detroit.

To answer the question, I've lived (in the sense of being a tax paying permanent resident) in the UK, Switzerland and Canada. During most years of residence in Canada I have spent more nights in the US than in any other single country and have worked in several countries in Asia and Europe as well as in Australia. My primary client at the moment is based in Costa Rica (wherever that is). I have some exposure to life in other countries due to having family in the UK, a Swiss wife, an American common-law wife and having been with the aforementioned Newfie for almost a decade.

Furthermore, we had a black person over for a barbecue just last summer and my other half has been to Scotland, so there!

None of this, of course, makes Tim Horton's adverts any less insufferable or the blanket coverage of the Gretzky's every twitch any less irksome.

dbd33

Does it sell coffee ? I suggest that it does because they've been churning out sickly-sweet adverts forevermore. Does it sell coffee in Canada ? I think so. Therefore, the company knows that that's what people in Canada want to see. Adverts are better than elections for determining the will of the lumpen proletariat.

oceanMDX

I hate most TV commercials with a passion. Like the one ... "hands in your pockets..." where guys are feeling up the asses of other men ..... puke... but unlike you, I understand that those who were involved with producing that commercial were idiots, not the entire country! :scared:

dbd33

That one is terrible, agreed. The HSBC series about "different points of view" is clever though, I don't mind those ones.

Anyway, off to walk dog, will return to mindless abuse soon as it's 20 degrees out there.

Grah

OK, lets buy coffee from a Canadian owned company where the coffee is grown in Canadian.

Where do you suggest?

Unlike Walmart Tim's pricing is competitive and other businesses flourish and still grow in the same market.

Unlike Walmart the stores are locally owned, operated and the majority of the profit stays in the same area as if the Franchise Owner had open their own non-brand coffee store.

As for blights on the landscape which chain of buildings do you think is not a blight?

Tim Horton's as a company has set up some good things,Children's Foundation , as well as other things that help in the local areas. They can't be responsible for every disadvantage person out there. As the red cross found out if you keep giving, some people stop fending for themselves and expect you to carry on giving.

After all if you have enough time to sit and watch television don't you have enough time to help or donate that energy cost to someone else.

Think about how much your TV costs a day, a $1 a day is all it takes to help and orphan in the world perhaps you could be happier if you didn't watch TV.

And heres another thing to help you Tim's Store locater go here type in your address and you can then see area's to be avoid.


Have a nice day DBd33 and each time you want to complain about how some corporation isn't helping the poor ask yourself, how much are the poor doing to help themselves. Clean neighbourhoods, teaching respect for their families and neighbours. None of that cost us money but it does cost money if we don't do it.

dbd33

Common Ground is the nearest locally owned Fair Trade coffee shop. I go there. I find there's a similar shop on most street corners in towns, in the suburbs one is stuck, of course.

It's a fair point that there are other coffee shops in Canada, however Tim Hortons, like Starbucks, does target locations where the independents have flourished. Note the war against them on the Danforth. I don't know what they pay for their coffee, I imagine there are tales of exploitation to be dug up by those who care.


The Keg, I suppose, IKEA, I don't give it a lot of thought, I just don't go into chain stores.


I don't think I complained about their corporate citizenship and I didn't ask them to do anything for the poor. I just cite their ghastly, sycophantic adverts as characterising what I see as being an unpleasant feature of life in Canada; smugness, I think Canadians tend to smugness.