Tim Hortons

Tim Hortons is so closely tied to Ontario that it's easy to assume it started in Toronto. It didn't — and the honest story is more interesting than the assumption.

A Toronto Maple Leaf

Miles Gilbert "Tim" Horton, born January 12, 1930, in Cochrane, Ontario, became an NHL defenceman who played the great majority of his career with the Toronto Maple Leafs, signing with the organization in 1947 and becoming a regular NHL player starting in the 1952–53 season. He won four Stanley Cups with Toronto, including the team's last championship in 1967. He was later traded away and was playing for the Buffalo Sabres, not the Leafs, at the time of his death in a 1974 car crash — but his playing legacy is overwhelmingly a Toronto one.

A Hamilton company

The company itself opened its first donut and coffee shop in 1964 on Ottawa Street in Hamilton, Ontario — a separate city roughly 65 kilometres southwest of Toronto. The shop sold coffee for a quarter and featured Horton's own recipes, including the apple fritter and the Dutchie. By his death in 1974, the chain had grown to about 40 locations; its explosive growth into a national and international chain came after his death, driven substantially by his business partner, Ron Joyce — a Hamilton origin story through and through, even if the man on the sign was pure Toronto.

Sources

• The Canadian Encyclopedia — Tim Horton
• Britannica — Tim Horton