I've heard that about in and out as well, a little trick to make customers feel a bit more special, same deal with five guys dumping all the extra fries in the bag... They're fully charging you for them, but it still feels special.

And yeah, originally A&W Canada got sold off to some big conglomerate in the 70s (like Unilever of something), then eventually in the 90s when the conglomerate decided they didn't want them, a group of franchisees banded together and bought A&W Canada from them... So it's been separate from the American version for over 50 years at this point.