home. Every day, he would take the cold drinks to sell to the workers on the construction sites. After the workers left for the day, Kevin would go around to the construction sites, retrieving the empty bottles to return for their deposit. It was a lucrative enterprise, one which would mark the beginning of many others.

They also learned to become self—reliant. Danny was operating the bar at the Cascades lounge in the Charlottetown Mall. The mall was owned by businessman Bernard Dale, and when Danny learned there were several apartments attached to one end of the mall, he approached Dale with

a proposal to look after the apartments in return for free rent on one of them. Dale agreed, and Danny moved out to be on his own. Growing up had taught him to be fiercely independent.

From the experience gained in operating the bar, Danny became obsessed with running his own business. He had been working in restaurants and bars, doing all the things an owner would do, and thought he might

as well get into business for himself. While he was contemplating his options, he was working at the Burger King restaurant and learned that the Tim Hortons franchise might be for sale. He immediately approached the owner, who put him in touch with Ron Joyce, president of the chain. Danny, then 23 at the time, was told by Joyce that he was too young, and said they could talk again in siX month’s time. In the meantime, there was a job opening as a baker at Tims, and Danny, hoping to learn more about the business, went there to work. Danny persisted in his efforts to buy the business. He arranged a bank loan, and borrowed from his father, brother Shawn and cousin Austin Trainor. He talked to a local banker to finance the balance based on his ownership of an old farm house he had moved to the Grand Tracadie area and renovated. Joyce, admiring his ambition and determination, awarded him the franchise.

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