Conservative MP Criticizes Tim Hortons’ ‘Woke Paper Lids’

Conservative MP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex Lianne Rood rises during Question Period, Feb. 21, 2022 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

A London-area MP is planning a Tim Hortons boycott until the Canadian coffee chain gets rid of the “woke paper lids” on its coffee cups.

Conservative MP Lianne Rood, who represents Lambton-Kent-Middlesex, took to social media on May 9 to criticize Tim Hortons not only for its change to coffee cups but for adding pizza to its menu.

“Well Canada, this is the last straw—I mean lid,” Ms. Rood says in a polished campaign-style video outside a Tim Hortons restaurant.

Holding a coffee cup, its lid stained with her lipstick, she adds, “Really, Tim Hortons? Paper lids that disintegrate in your mouth? Come on!”

“This is just another example of something trying to help the environment when it’s actually going to have the opposite effect,” she continues on the video posted to X. “If we have a plastic lid, at least it’s recyclable, but this, disintegrating in your mouth as you’re trying to drink your coffee? No thanks! I don’t know about you, but until Tim Hortons gets rid of this paper lid, I’m done with Tim Hortons.”

The video ends with her name and political information on the traditional Tory blue background.

While she doesn’t mention pizza in the video, she appears to take exception to the menu change with the post on X, formerly Twitter, accompanying the video.

“Tim’s used to be for the little guy who wanted a quick coffee and a bite. Now they’re making pizzas and crappy paper lids,” she writes. “I’m done with Tim Hortons until they stop trying to push these woke paper lids that dissolve in your mouth.”

Fibre Lid Test

Tim Hortons media relations, in an email to The Epoch Times, said the lid change is temporary.

“To be clear, there is no plan to switch to fibre lids at Tims,” the email reads.

“We conducted a fibre lid test for a few weeks in downtown Ottawa and P.E.I. that has already ended. This is part of our long-term learning for packaging alternatives.”

Tim Hortons has transitioned to a number of environmentally friendly packaging items over the past year “in an effort to help reduce the use of single-use plastics,” the company said in a February press release. It has introduced wooden and fibre cutlery and replaced plastic lids on bowls with fibre lids.

The test of the fibre lids is part of the restaurant chain’s “five-year journey to develop more sustainable solutions for all our packaging,” Tim Hortons senior director of procurement, sustainability, and packaging Paul Yang said in the press release.

Tim Hortons media relations noted that governments at the municipal, provincial, and federal level “have suggested banning single use plastics—including plastic lids.”

Plastics Ban Push

Ottawa announced its plan last month to introduce a national plastics registry to track how much plastic is being produced in Canada.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault has called the registry “an important tool that will help track and manage plastics” across the country.

“It is hard to tackle a problem if you don’t know what it is, where it is, what’s being produced,” he told reporters at an April 22 press conference.

The registry will enable the government to track its progress toward reducing waste by collecting and reporting data on a wide range of plastics, the news release said. Single-use and disposable items as well as plastics used in packaging will be monitored. Also on the list are the plastics used in home appliances, electronics, construction, transportation, tires, textiles, fishing and aquaculture, and agriculture and horticulture.

The registry is just one part of the Liberal’s overall push to achieve zero plastic waste in Canada by 2030. Plastic-manufactured items were added to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act in 2021. Once a material is labelled as toxic under the act, it allows Ottawa to control how that substance is manufactured, sold, and disposed of.

As part of this objective, Ottawa in 2022 banned the manufacture and import of single-use plastics—including checkout bags, stir sticks, straws, cutlery, and foodservice ware.

However, the government’s plan has had more than a few stumbling blocks over the past year.

The Federal Court of Canada ruled on Nov. 16, 2023, that Ottawa’s order classifying manufactured plastic items as “toxic” was “unreasonable” and “unconstitutional.” The court further said the order was unconstitutional because it exceeded Ottawa’s ability to make criminal law.

Mr. Guilbeault announced on Nov. 20 that the government would appeal the ruling.