# Canadians and doughnuts

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadians-and-doughnuts/546165>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [July 9, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadians-and-doughnuts/546165 "2010-07-09T23:13:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 101

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**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2010, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadians-and-doughnuts/546165/101 "2010-09-30T21:32:23Z")

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> [@antonio107](#):
>
> > [@samclem](#):
> >
> > I appreciate the interesting reads. There was nothing there that persuaded me that there are any statistics that say that Canadians consume more doughnuts than their US counterparts.
> > 
> > Edited to add: let’s talk about per capita consumption.
> 
> Coming back to my Tim Horton’s angle and the links I found via google scholar, it may simply be an interesting _perception_ that Canadians eat more doughnuts. Now, I haven’t seen it, but there’s a lot of these folksy components to English Canada, real or imagined, that a second-generation Canadian like me can’t relate to: things like chesterfields, calling people “hosers,” and toques with the little pompoms on the top.

Another (American) trivia - W.C. Fields on his radio show used to always crak jokes about his son Chester. Many people were mystified because he had no kids, fortunately - until someone at the sponsoring tobacco company figured out that mentioning “Chester Fields” on their program was not not a good idea. (Lucky Strike, I think).

Back when Tims was real doughnuts, they slowly beat out a whole mess of competitors in central Canada - Country Style and such. Now they are doing it to places like Robins in the west.

More trivia - the Hortons with apostrophe is to get around Quebec language laws. Eaton’s is an english sign and therefore illegal in Quebec, Eatons is just a name and perfectly legal to post in public. Fortunately, Eaton’s took the easy way out and went bankrupt instead. Tim’s hasn’t yet, despite the rubber donuts, so they needed to drop the quote.

(True fact that Americans may not know - it is illegal to post in English in QUebec. A few years ago I went across from Ottawa to Hull; the big sign in the shop window said “Bienvenue” and the matching “Welcome” had been sliced out of the paper, leaving an obvious hole - probably on the orders of the language police. So there is no welcome for you maudit anglais in Quebec. Nor for ethniques nor monnaie.)

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