LANGLEY, B.C. — George Tidball, a long-time restaurateur who brought McDonald’s to Canada and founded The Keg Steakhouse & Bar, has died at 83.
Born Oct. 4, 1930 in Carstairs, Alta., Tidball studied economics at Harvard University. In the early 1960s, he became intrigued with a hamburger stand his family visited in Chicago. Learning it was McDonald’s, he purchased the territorial rights for Western Canada and opened the first McDonald’s in Canada in Richmond, B.C. in 1967.
In 1970, he founded the Thunderbird Equestrian Centre in Langley, B.C., with his family, and later constructed the first Keg steakhouse on-site. At the time it was called The Keg and Cleaver and was built on the pillars of quality, service and atmosphere. In 1986, he sold the Keg to U.K.-based Whitbread PLC.
He is survived by his wife, Dianne, and four children.
