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We get mail — Here’s a letter from Dan Aykroyd, circa 1991, when Bruce McNall, John Candy and Wayne Gretzky owned the Grey Cup champ Argos

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jc john candy 24931143 450 372 We get mail    Heres a letter from Dan Aykroyd, circa 1991, when Bruce McNall, John Candy and Wayne Gretzky owned the Grey Cup champ Argos
The last time the Argos played the Stamps in the Grey Cup was 1991 in frigid (minus-17 Celsius) Winnipeg, a game and a time memorable for Raghib (Rocket) Ismail’s 87-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, Matt Dunigan’s heroic performance despite a cracked collarbone, and the glitz and glamor the Argos brought to the party.

That was the year Los Angeles Kings owner Bruce McNall bought the Argos, in partnership with Wayne Gretzky, his star player in L.A., and John Candy, the great Canadian comedian.

It was also a year of turmoil in the CFL, what with the Ottawa Rough Riders ownership walking away from that franchise, leaving it in the hands of the CFL and interim commissioner Donald Crump, with a volatile ownership situation in Calgary and much else.

Candy, particularly, worked very hard that season to inject some pizazz into the CFL, as well as some marketing and business savvy. He visited every CFL city, met the media, made public appearances, and generally poured himself into being a committed owner of the Argos, then a powerhouse team, playing to crowds averaging about 35,000 at Skydome.

When he came to Ottawa, Candy I wrote a column for The Citizen wondering what expertise this obviously successful entertainer brought to a league that was troubled financially, pondering expansion to the United States, and so on.

Candy became quite defensive about some of the questions — “It’s called show BUSINESS, you know! It is a BUSINESS!” — and suggested, at one point, that if I didn’t recognize his business acumen, well, I could leave the room.

After the column appeared, Candy buddy Dan Aykroyd, an Ottawa native who spent (spends) his summers in the Kingston area, wrote a letter to the editor smacking me upside the head in witty and literate fashion. Best letter to the editor any column of mine ever provoked.

Here it is:

On a mission from John
The Ottawa Citizen
Wed Aug 14 1991
Page: A8
Section: News
Byline: Dan Aykroyd

It seems a lateral job shift is in order for your sports columnist John MacKinnon.

Either he really wants to be a movie critic, as evidenced by the opening paragraph of his piece (Citizen, July 31), or possibly he’s the only Canadian alive who is not a John Candy fan.

For him to immediately and generally qualify Mr. Candy’s films as being noted for fishing after ”cheap, unsubtle laughs” and to label this accomplished, talented, world-proven star a ”hambone” goes beyond chirping in with film commentary and reads as an open, uneducated insult to the art of the comedian-writer-actor.

As a working performer, screenwriter and Oscar nominee, I can speak on behalf of all the successful and accomplished members of my community when I say that John Candy is one of the most appreciated and respected hyphenate artists and actors in the profession. The business tells us he is also one of the top-10 comedy box-office stars worldwide for the past decade.

This type of achievement can hardly have been built on cheap comedy. ”Real, genuine” laughs might be the appropriate qualifications.

Your columnist’s initiating the sports item in this way and then going on in the column to undermine a logical marriage of sports and show business _ which has only resulted in an earnest and heartfelt effort towards saving the Ottawa Rough Riders, the hometown team _ might betray a desire for a change in life: perhaps to the film beat of another newspaper, in another city.

Dan Aykroyd

Conehead, Blues Brother, Ghostbuster

Kingston



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