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All the "stuff" on the internet that supports my contention, right down to the "what's the difference between a Canadian and a canoe?".... you're right, that "stuff" is all "made up", and I'm wrong...it's just all a malicious plot to smear Canadians and other foreign visitors.

We'll be happy to welcome you, and serve you and take that pay cut and lost opportunity to serve a local who, in my market, is documented as tipping an AVERAGE of 19 percent at an AVERAGE restaurant....

Just extend one courtesy to us...we had a staff meeting several years ago, and management asked us to agree to a proposal that would improve service by offering the guests the opportunity to simply and immediately leave the bar and be escorted to the dining room when the table they were waiting for, or their reservation time, became available, WITHOUT having to ask for a bar tab, and sit through an added payment transaction.

We recognized, however, that eliminating one of two payments for our bar/dining patrons was in the interest of improving service. The bar staff, of course, wanted 19 percent multiplied times the bar tab of each guest, deducted from the bar checks that they transferred to us to consolidate with the dinner checks, deducted from our total tip on those transactions.

We weren't comfortable, taking a risk of mandatory 19 percent deducts because our experience was that some of our guests tipped lower than average. We compromised by agreeing to a deduct of 17 percent on the amount of each bar tab transferred to dining room checks.

So....stick to your guns....you know what you know. We'll take the pay cut when we serve you, and lose the opportunity to serve a local patron who will routinely tip 25 to 30 percent more than you (19 or 20 percent, vs. your 15 percent max.). There are enough locals and American business travelers to make up for the effects of your "principles", on our bottom line, not to drive us into some other line of work, just yet. When you write in the amount of the tip, after you've enjoyed your dining experience, consider that you've paid our owner every penny he asked for, and his supply chain, and all of the salaried and higher wage earning "non-tipped" employees, as well.

The only ones you've executed a pay cut, vs. the opportunity to be compensated to the level of the average that they normally received for their work in crafting your dining experience, were the waitstaff, the only ones who trusted you to do right by them....or not.

You'll "show us !", you've made it quite plain, and our other clientelle will help us make up for your lower, more principled tipping, but if we can persuade you to consider one thing....please pay your bar tab before you walk from the bar to your table. I've experienced tips so small from guests with larger bar tabs, that I've actually lost money serving them, and you've already assured me that, no matter what, your tip will be 2 percent less than what I have to pay back the bar for the 17 percent deduct on bar tabs.

During the 1996 Olympic games here, all restaurants simply added an 18 to 20 percent gratuity to each check, because it was anticipated that foreign visitors would become an increased portion of guest demographics, since many local patrons planned to be away during the period of the games to avoid the anticipated congestion. After the games, the restaurant owners ended this practice, and since, waitstaff is completely at your mercy, so....come on in, and "fire away" at us. At least now we know that how you tip isn't because of low currency exchange rates, or because you are unaware that the local patron at the table next to you tips an average just above 19 percent here. You tip the way that you do, because you can!