This Hour Has 22 Minutes publicity for the show and contributed to the general air of farce surrounding Day's election campaign. Day did, however, have a very appropriate response to the petition: ""Que será, será"." It was later revealed by Alastair Campbell, former aide to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, that Prime Minister Jean Cretien and the Liberal Party had come up with the idea- not Mercer or the show's writers. 2003–04 – Shaun Majumder, in character as "Raj Binder", was sent to report on the 2003 outdoors Edmonton Oilers and Montreal Canadiens old timers game, preceding the night's actual NHL regular season game, which
Stephen Carter, Baron Carter of Barnes what was a newly created position. He resigned from the role in January 2008 to join the administration of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. At that time, he also stepped down as a commissioner of the UK Commission for Employment & Skills and non-executive director of Royal Mail Holdings and Travis Perkins. He returned to public life in January 2008 as chief of strategy and principal advisor for Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Serving as Brown's Downing Street Chief of Staff, he was given responsibility for running political strategy, research, communications, and the Policy Unit. Carter was subsequently appointed Brown's communications minister