Tim Hortons preferred over designer coffee: poll

OTTAWA — The double double and cruller have it over the latte and biscotti hands down, a new poll suggests.

The survey suggests that fans of the iconic Tim Hortons brand — which has outlets from Kelowna to Kandahar — outnumber Starbucks people 4-1.

And it indicates that Tim Hortons is the great Canadian leveller, whose popularity cuts across political lines and unites old and young, rich and poor.

Stephen Harper was labelled the Tim Hortons prime minister by MacLean’s in 2006, but the poll results suggest that the ubiquitous coffee shops — there are about 3,000 in Canada — draw in roughly equal proportions from every political party.

Folklore portrays the average Tim’s customer as a pickup-driving Everyman in a flannel shirt and baseball cap who scorns frappucinos, isn’t sure what a latte is and embraces hockey and hunting. It’s supposedly the place where the average Joe gets his joe.

The poll suggests, though, that the well-off Tory is almost as likely to drop in to Tim’s as the blue-collar New Democrat or the downtown Liberal.

Overall, the Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey found 49 per cent of respondents called themselves Tim Hortons people, as opposed to 12 per cent who preferred the Starbucks label. About 26 per cent chose neither company and 11 per said they didn’t drink coffee.