Content
Skip to Main ContentAccessibility Help
Out In The Open

Jeff Douglas vs. Joe Canadian

Before he was co-hosting CBC’s As It Happens, Jeff Douglas became famous for playing Molson’s Joe Canadian.
Out In The Open ·
Before Jeff Douglas was the co-host of CBC's As It Happens he was best known as 'Joe Canadian' (CBC/Canadian Press)

"The reason I had been cast was because I had this incredible head of hockey hair at the time. And not the great hockey hair of now," says Jeff Douglas, co-host of CBC's As It Happens.

Before his broadcasting career, Douglas was everywhere in the 2000s thanks to the Molson Canadian commercial, "The Rant", where he played Joe Canadian.

It went viral before viral was really a thing. And Douglas became the face of a nation.

"When I die and I am laid to rest, that is going to be on my tombstone. 'Here lies Joe Canadian'...I didn't say I wanted that written on my tombstone. I just said that is what is going to be written on my tombstone."

But Douglas says it doesn't bother him now that people still point out or recognize him as Joe Canadian.

"We all have these different chapters that come and go in our lives. This is a beat that just keeps on beating in the background of my professional life.

"And the older I get the more I realize I am a small town Canadian dude...In my core, I am very much like that Joe guy."

Apparently, Douglas also drinks Molson Canadian. Sometimes.

This story originally aired on February 12, 2017

More from this episode