Tim Hortons-Burger King merger serves big order of cross-border controversy

Problem with deal is more about identity in Canada. A national icon swallowed up and jobs spat out again by an American behemoth fuels tricky debate

Another merger deal, followed by some more layoffs. No big surprise, right?
Well, not if you happen to live in Canada. Not if the company that was acquired was Tim Hortons, whose coffee and doughnuts are an iconic national brand. It was even founded by a player of Canada's unofficial national game, the late NHL defenseman Tim Horton, who was killed in a car crash in 1974. And particularly not if the company doing the acquiring - and now orchestrating the layoffs - is Burger King, the giant US division of 3G Capital, a Brazilian investment firm.
It's not the Brazilian part that irks Canadians: it's having a national icon swallowed up and jobs spat out again by an American behemoth.

"Another foreign takeover approved by the Conservatives and another round of pink slips for Canadian workers!" thundered David Christopherson, a member of Canada's New Democratic Party, a left-wing opposition party, in parliament in the wake of the news that the newly merged Burger King/Tim Hortons would axe 350 jobs at the Tim Hortons head office and at regional headquarters.
In fact, between listening to the political rhetoric and reading some of the comments online, I felt as if I had been transported in time back to the heyday of Canadian economic nationalism.
"Now if we could only get Canadians to boycott "Burger Tims" for laying off all our citizens!", tweeted @DyBee. She got at least one taker, who pledged "I will no longer go to Tim Hortons #canadianjobsmatter".

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