 For those non-Canadian readers among us, for 16 years Ron MacLean has been the co-host of "Hockey Night in Canada", which is an inseparable part of Canadian culture which unites French, English and Natives from coast to coast to coast. Known as "Don Cherry's side-kick", this year MacLean hired an agent to negotiate his contract with the CBC, and on Monday negotiations failed and the CBC announced that MacLean would not be hosting Hockey Night in Canada this year.
That's about when the proverbial shit hit the fan. The country flew into a frenzy of outrage and thousands upon thousands of us contacted the CBC to express our discontent. As of 48 hours after the announcement, CBC had recieved over 20 thousand emails on the matter, which is several times the amount recieved on any other issue, including the death of beloved former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. As one person stated "Hockey Night in Canada without Ron MacLean is like pancakes without maple syrup, poutine without gravy, Tim Horton's without coffee, winter without snow."
Just when it looked as though Canadians would have to get used to the idea of Cherry without MacLean, Labatt - a major sponsor of Hockey Night in Canada to the tune of tens of millions of dollars - stepped in and "strongly urged" the CBC to get MacLean back. Now 4 days later on Thursday morning the headlines are reporting that MacLean is indeed back!
More on the story at Canada.com
|
