Editorial — Why the sale of Tim Hortons is a national issue

SATURDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — A group of media panelists on the CBC afternoon radio show Q on Friday was belittling the national angst over the sale of Tim Hortons to Burger King.

Coffee is not an issue worthy of such concern, they contended, saying it doesn’t exactly rank up there with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Arctic sovereignty or whatever.

Well, wait a minute. On the same day the indignant media panel was poo-pooing the Tim Hortons issue, there was a report that scientists have sequenced the genome of the coffee plant. If scientists go to the trouble of studying the DNA of coffee, it must be important.

“Coffee is as important to everyday early risers as it is to the global economy,” said Philippe Lashermes, a researcher at the French Institute of Research for Development, as reported by the University of Buffalo.

“Accordingly, a genome sequence could be a significant step toward improving coffee. By looking at the coffee genome and genes specific to coffee, we were able to draw some conclusions about what makes coffee special.”

We don’t really need scientists to tell us coffee is special. We just have to go a day without a double double to know we need it in our lives.

Sure, Tims is a big corporation that sells coffee and donuts for profit, just as our favourite NHL hockey teams are about making the owners lots of money, but who owns Tim Hortons is important to our sense of national well-being.

All we have to ask is this:

Does Tim Hortons instill in us a sense of national pride?

Does it bring people together?

‘Nuff said.