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
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom powerful than the American presidents, as the Prime Minister is part of the legislature, and unlike presidents, can directly initiate legislation. Thus, Dowding argues that adding to these powers, makes the Prime Minister less like presidents, and that what Britain is witnessing is not presidentialisation but, increase in powers overtime, can be best explained as "Prime Ministerialisation" of British politics. Regarding the thesis, Dowding writes: "The presidentialisation of the Prime Minister thesis should be expunged from political science vocabulary, to the extent that the forces identified by those who pursue the thesis exist, they do not make the British Prime