Myra Merino, the manager of McDonald’s on Middleton Avenue, has been awarded McDonald’s Canada’s 2026 Outstanding Manager of the Year award, the company announced. It’s an honour handed to only the top five percent of their managers nationwide at their over 1500 locations.
“I was super excited when I found that out,” Merino said. “I felt very grateful, very happy, and of course proud.”
Merino said she knew the award was a possibility (she had been recognized by McDonald’s for outstanding achievement before in 2023) and it was a goal of hers to win the award. Her actual victory, however, took her by surprise.
“When I found out, it was during my store audit from McDonald’s in Winnipeg,” she said. “They were coming in from Winnipeg to Brandon. They were supposed to come and tell me in person, but there was a storm and they couldn’t make it. What they did was they called me in the office and announced it over a video call. I was super, super happy, and surprised.”
Merino has lived in Brandon for 11 years now, and her children attend school in the city. So she was happy to share credit for the award with Brandon as a community and with her team at McDonald’s.
“It’s not just me that won this, it’s for the team as well,” she said. “I couldn’t do this without my team, my team leaders, my managers, and the office team also that helped me.”
According to a release from McDonald’s, one of the things that contributed to her award was her efforts on McHappy Day. They said she loves to rally her team around McHappy Day with a different restaurant theme each year, including a superhero theme one year with homemade capes she had made herself.
“Every year we try and go above and beyond to reach the community,” Merino said. “We do a different theme every year, and the last couple of years we’ve worn super hero capes, and we give the volunteers the cape and the mask. They feel like they’re superheroes when they’re here.”
McDonald’s said this is Merino’s first time winning the award.
