That’s so very true, I often think of the D as Windsor’s ghetto. Glad to see someone else recognizes our similarities. 
In fairness to Adams (the guy cited in the article, not our Cec), he is a well-known and as far as I can tell, respected pollster. He tends to get called up by the media to comment on all sorts of social trends, and not surprisingly they just want snappy little bits to put in their columns. Plus, he’s got a sense of humour, which can be dangerous in such situations.
In addition to the kind of bread and butter polls that register short-term things, like “would you vote for so-and-so if the election were held tomorrow”, he’s also been involved in more long-term polls to track social trends, both within Canada and as part of international polling groups. His two major books reporting on the trends have been Sex in the Snow (a look at Canadians’ attitudes towards sex) and Fire and Ice, a look at comparing trends in social thoughts in Canada and the U.S. I’ve read Fire and Ice and it seems a quite substantial piece of work, not fluff.
His general thesis in Fire and Ice is that while Canadians and Americans share a lot of common values, in his opinion on certain key issues the two countries are moving farther apart in their social values, notably on religious values, community and sexual mores, contrary to the expectations triggered by NAFTA and globalization. He seemed a bit surprised by that himself.
One major example, however, supports his thesis - the issue of gay marriage. His book came out in early 2004, but most of the work on it would have been done before the summer of 2003, which was the year that appellate courts in some Canadian provinces and Massachussetts held that same sex marriage was constitutionally required. When you compare the responses to those court cases in the two countries, three years on, it seems to me to bear out Adams’ thesis in Fire and Ice:
[ul]
[li]in Canada, Parliament passed a bill authorising same-sex marriage throughout the country; the current administration does not have the votes to overturn that; proposals for a constitutional amendment to enshrine same-sex marriage do not appear to have any legislative support anywhere;[/li]
[li]in the U.S., several states have banned same-sex marriage by amendments to the state constitutions; a proposal to amend the federal Constitution in a similar way has considerable support in Congress, although apparently not the two-thirds needed; the President has used this issue as a “wedge” issue to mobilize his base.[/li][/ul]All of which fits perfectly in Adams’ thesis of diverging social norms between the two countries.
So in summary, while I don’t give much credence to a humourous sound bite that Adams may give to a reporter doing a fluff piece, he certainly has a subtantial body of work behind his quickie comments - a body of work that has been borne out by the same-sex marriage issue.
You didn’t make it through to the end, then?
For me, (and most people, I think,) the brand is loaded with irony.
I sometimes catch myself invoking Horton’s as a sort of archetype of ordinariness. There may well be some crossover with the concept of mundanity and Canadian-ness; we’re an odd sort of self-deprecating people, sometimes. 
I can’t imagine Timmy’s inspiring any Canuck with genuine nationalist feeling, the way a well-maintained Zamboni does.
“mmmmm - Zamboni …”
Wait…I see four guys on horses…hmm…they don’t look very nice.
Who’s the guy with the ‘666’ t-shirt?
Mostly it inspires me with a feeling of CAFFEINE. NOW. OR I WILL INJURE YOU VERY VERY MUCH.
And I would have to say that, while a coffee and doughnut place is a pretty good national symbol, it’s neatly trumped by gay-married Mounties.