It’s as Canadian as hockey, the maple leaf and Canada geese.

Or is it?

In the past, Tim Hortons rightfully earned its place as a Canadian icon, starting with one coffee shop in Ontario and eventually building an empire that made Timbits and double doubles part of the national lexicon.

But after the company was bought by U.S. burger chain Wendy’s, and later became part of a holding company backed by a Brazilian investment firm, did it forfeit its claim to Canadian identity?

The topic has been hotly debated online — and likely in coffee shops across the nation — in the wake of the patriotic fervour whipped up by tariff and annexation threats from U.S. President Donald Trump.

A recent social media post from the company declares it to be “proudly Canadian,” but many of the 2,500 comments below dispute the statement, insisting it is not Canadian, but rather American or Brazilian. Posts about the topic in “Buy Canadian” groups on social media sites have devolved into the same debate.

So where does the truth lie? What makes a company Canadian? Is it the ownership? The supply chain? The franchise locations? The employees? The headquarters? Or is it something more intangible — a reflection of our values, history or traditions? 

Origin and ownership

First, let’s look at the hard facts.

Tim Hortons was founded in 1964 by longtime Toronto Maple Leafs player Tim Horton, and was later taken over by Nova Scotia-born Ron Joyce after Horton’s death in 1974.

In 1995, the business was bought by American burger chain Wendy’s, but the two companies went their separate ways in 2006.

In 2014, Tim Hortons became part of Restaurant Brands International. This is where the idea of Tim’s being Brazilian comes from. Restaurant Brands International’s largest shareholder was the Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital.

In 2014, at the time of the takeover, 3G held 47 per cent of the voting power in Restaurant Brands International, but that has slowly decreased over time to 26 per cent as of Dec. 31, 2024.

Today, Canadian banks such as Toronto Dominion, Bank of Montreal, National Bank and Royal Bank, as well as Canadian institutional investors such as the CPP Investment Board, cumulatively hold a stake comparable to 3G, according to Michael Oliveira, the director of communications for Tim Hortons.

“We understand how this ‘Brazilian-owned’ narrative evolved over time but it’s simply not accurate,” he said in an email.

Restaurant Brands International’s financial documents show that U.S.-based Capital World Investors has the next largest percentage of voting power, at about 9.5 per cent, and U.S.-based Pershing Square Funds has about 6.5 per cent.

Identity goes beyond ownership

Florian Muenkel, an assistant professor of finance at Saint Mary’s University’s Sobey School of Business in Halifax, says where shareholders are located doesn’t have a big impact on the perception of a company’s nationality.

He says consumers likely associate the brands Chrysler, Fiat, Jeep, Maserati and Peugeot with certain countries, but they are all part of Stellantis, a multinational company with headquarters in the Netherlands. 

“I think to a certain extent we are anthropomorphizing a company here,” Muenkel says. “A company is not a human being for which you can basically assign something like a citizenship.”

Of the 6,043 Tim Hortons stores worldwide, 64 per cent are located in Canada. More than 100,000 people are employed in the Canadian stores, which are owned by 1,500 franchisees. An additional 400 people work for the corporate office, which is headquartered in Toronto.

Shares of Restaurant Brands International trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange as well as the New York Stock Exchange, and the company is regulated under the Canada Business Corporations Act.

In terms of its supply chain, Tim Hortons roasts the majority of the coffee for its restaurants and blends the beans for its take-home coffee at two roasting facilities — its flagship roastery in Ancaster, Ont., and another in Rochester, N.Y.

The company owns five distribution centres in Canada and uses third-party partners for four others in the country, and operates a manufacturing plant in Oakville, Ont., which produces fondants, icings and fills.

Muenkel says someone deciding whether a company is Canadian might consider where its sales come from, where it produces its goods, where it employs people and, to an extent, who owns it.

So in his view, is Tim Hortons Canadian? He hesitates, reluctant. Then: “As an economist, I would say yes.”

‘Canadian in spirit’

Douglas Hunter is the author of a book about Tim Hortons called Double Double: How Tim Hortons Became a Canadian Way of Life, One Cup at a Time. He’s also written a book about Tim Horton, the man who started it all.

Hunter says in the company’s earlier days, its sheer ubiquity was what made it popular with Canadians.

“You want a coffee … you just point your car down one of the major roads and you’re going to hit a Tim’s.”

And there just wasn’t much competition at that time. Hunter says for people who wanted to run any kind of restaurant franchise, coffee and baked goods were way down the desirability list — below burgers, ice cream and pancakes.

“It was the only show in town.… Ron Joyce with Horton figured out they had a very strong niche that nobody else was in.”

The restaurants also became a gathering point in communities. If you needed to meet a stranger or sign divorce papers, a coffee shop was the place to do it, Hunter says.

Despite the company’s multinational status today, Hunter says the fact that franchises are run by local people who know their customers and the market “better than bean counters in head office” sways his opinion in favour of Tim Hortons’s identity as Canadian.

“I think it’s Canadian in spirit,” he says. “Somebody in Sao Paulo is not sitting at a computer desk deciding, you know, how many crullers we’re going to order.”

‘A place of community’

The person who is, in fact, deciding how many crullers to order — at least in the case of her own Tim Hortons franchises — is Tanya Doucette and her staff.

Doucette lives in Sylvan Lake, Alta., and owns eight Tim Hortons locations in central Alberta.

She says she hears the debates about whether Tim Hortons is Canadian, and she understands why Canadians want clarity during this moment of change and upheaval.

But in her mind, there’s no question: “Tim Hortons is Canadian.”

Beyond the questions of stockholders and supply chains, Doucette says it’s the role that Tim Hortons plays in the lives of ordinary people that earns its status as Canadian.

She thinks back to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when customers weren’t allowed inside restaurants.

“Our guests would bring lawn chairs and they would sit, even though it was winter … and even though Alberta can remain quite cold until well into May, our guests were gathering outside. They were keeping the spacing that was required, but they gathered outside because they needed that place to come together. And this is a place of community for them.”

The restaurant is so integral to some daily customers’ lives that they inform staff if they’re going on holiday and tell them not to worry if they’re not around.

Doucette says when communities are celebrating something or dealing with tragedy, “we’re one of the first calls — can you bring coffee? Can you provide Timbits or hot chocolate?” she says.

“It’s bonspiels, it’s middle school orientations, it’s read-a-thons, it’s all the little ways that we try to support our communities.”

Oliveira, the Tim Hortons communications director, said the company is deeply embedded in Canadian communities.

Tim Hortons charitable programs raised $44.1 million in 2024 to support local causes through campaigns such as Smile Cookie, Camp Day, Orange Sprinkle doughnuts and Special Olympics doughnuts. It also runs seven camps for youth from low-income homes, and supports programs such as Timbits soccer and hockey.

“We don’t just serve Canadians — we give back in a big way,” says Oliveira.