ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the history and advertising of the donut chain Tim Hortons and its place in Canadian popular culture. The chapter shows that in addition to its business success and the presence of many franchises, it is careful marketing that has allowed Tim Hortons to achieve a key place in relation to contemporary expressions of nationalism and popular culture, and especially an English-Canadian form of nationalism. Arguing that Tim Hortons is a site for both identity expression and identity suppression, Abu-Laban illustrates how the promotion of ordinary hockey-loving Canadians ignores long-standing inequalities relating to Canada’s foundation and evolution as a settler colony in the North American space. The silences concerning domestic social relations of inequality help make Tim Hortons uniquely susceptible to a mythic and nostalgic conservatism.
