When he was health minister, Kevin Falcon defended a Lower Mainland hospital using a Tim Horton's as space for patients. This week he was in a franchise of the doughnut shop chain serving coffee for charity.

"It was packed," said Falcon, now the finance minister, following his scheduled half hour at the Victoria shop June 1 as part of an effort to raise money for the Tim Horton Children's Foundation.

"No, no patients," he responded to a Tyee question.

In March, a surgeon at the Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster blamed inaction by Falcon and his predecessor George Abbott for the hospital having to use a Tim Horton's for overflow patients.

While Falcon had little to say about the occasional role of Tim Horton's in the provincial health care system, he did offer the following observations:

"You know what was really interesting about it? I've never actually seen what goes on behind the scenes on the double-double stuff. So I actually learned the whole system involved. They take the cup over to the special sugar thing, you hit the double-double and it schoo-schoo [imitating sound], and then you go to another machine and it fits like cream double-double . . . and it shoots in the right amount of cream, or milk, depending which one, and there's actually quite a few steps they have to take, then you've got to stir it up because it's got to be properly mixed, put the thing on the top, mark it double-double or whatever."

Said Falcon, "Gee, I thought I had a tough job, but try pouring coffee for a line-up that's going right out to the door for pretty much the entire time I was there."

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.