title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: "Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes", known in Japan as "Naruto: Narutimate Portable Zero" is a North American and European-exclusive fighting game. It was released in North America on August 28, 2007 and in Europe on September 14, 2007. It is essentially an edited version of "Naruto: Narutimate Portable", as well the Japanese dub are not included in this game. which also happens to be a scaled down version of "Naruto: Ultimate Ninja 2".


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: Story Mode, Kabuto, Shizune, The Third Hokage, and two stages were removed in this release, while Naruto & Sasuke's secret techniques were modified to prevent spoilers (as the English dub had not reached the Sasuke Retrieval arc yet). To compensate for these removals, the game now has a 3-on-3 battle system, similar to "The King of Fighters"; where the first team to defeat all three members of the other team wins. The game features 20 characters, eight Stages, and several new features, such as a three-on-three fighting system, wireless two-player battles, and "Hidden Team Skills", which grant special abilities to a certain combination of characters.


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: "Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 2: Phantom Fortress", known as in Japan as , was released in Japan on March 30, 2006, and in North America on June 24, 2008, and in Europe on July 11, 2008. In this "Naruto" game, the player chooses four characters and equips them with skills and items. This release is the full non-modified version of "Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Heroes", and contains the three characters that were removed: The Third Hokage, Shizune and Kabuto. Both removed stages and the game's Story Mode are now present as well. Additionally, movesets have been updated. Players can also select whether the characters use Japanese or English voices. Jiraiya and Naruto can use Rasengan, Kakashi can use Lightning Blade and Sasuke can use Chidori without the use of a secret technique.


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: While some characters retain their old techniques, others, such as Neji, have theirs upgraded. The game contains an original storyline involving moving up a haunted castle in the sky to the 100th floor (or 30 subfloors if playing the Hidden Mugenjo Mode.) Each floor has several "blank" rooms where the users place randomly generated scrolls to determine the type of action that will take place in the room. The scrolls include Battle (a player vs. CPU fight) and five mini game scrolls: Tree Climbing (Naruto dashes up a tree and dodges broken branches), Shadow Possession ("Simon"-style button pressing), Amusement (slot machines), Riddle (answer "Naruto" trivia) and Clone (the shell game where the player tries to follow the real clone). Non-blank rooms include Treasure Rooms, Healing Rooms and Drama rooms (where the story progresses and cut scenes take place). Other game modes include vs. CPU and ad hoc wireless battle mode where players can fight against a friend using game sharing (only one UMD, but two PSPs).


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: "Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Heroes 3", known as in Japan, is the sixth installment in the "Ultimate Ninja" series, announced as an exclusive title for the PlayStation Portable. The game was released in Japan on December 10, 2009 and was released in North America on May 11, 2010. The game features of a roster of more than 50 characters, 48 of which are from the TV series "Naruto Shippuden". The game features four-player local multiplayer battles, as well as Sasuke and the members of Team Hebi. It features a story arc designed by CyberConnect2 that is unique to this game, as well as a regular one that follows the Naruto "Shippūden" storyline and one that follows Sasuke's story. This was the last game released under the Ultimate Ninja Heroes moniker.


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: "Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Impact" ( in Japan), is the sixth Naruto title for the PlayStation Portable. The game's storyline covers the Kazekage Rescue arc up to the Five Kage Summit Arc. The game features boss battles, an all new rush battle system, 1 vs 100 action, ad hoc multiplayer missions, and also features over 50 characters, 26 of which are playable. As a special gift at New York Comic Con 2011, the first 200 people that went to watch "" along with "Naruto" Japanese voice actress, Junko Takeuchi, received a free copy of the game. It is the last game in the series to be featured on the PSP, with no further releases due to the release of the PlayStation Vita, the successor system to the PSP.


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: "Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm", known in Japan as "Naruto: Narutimate Storm" (" ナルティメットストーム Naruto: Narutimetto Sutōmu?") is a fighting game developed by CyberConnect2 and published by Namco Bandai Games. The game was initially released as an exclusive for the PlayStation 3 in North America, Europe and Australia in November 2008 and in Japan on January 15, 2009. This is the first "Naruto" fighting game to feature a 3-dimensional fighting system as well as the first to be playable in high-definition.


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: "Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2", known in Japan as was officially announced on December 20, 2009, for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game features more characters, stages and story-content than its predecessor, as well as being the first "Naruto" game to feature online multiplayer. It was released on October 15, 2010, in Europe, October 19, 2010 in North America, and October 21, 2010 in Japan.


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: "Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Generations", known in Japan as was officially announced on June 18, 2011, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Unlike previous "Storm" games, the game's story mode features separate campaigns for several different characters, with cutscenes being newly-animated OVA's. It was released on February 23, 2012, in Japan, March 13, 2012 in North America, and March 30, 2012 in Europe. "Generations" is the only game in the "Storm" series to have not received a PC release.


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: "Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3", known in Japan as was officially announced on June 24, 2012, for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Mob Battles akin to "Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Impact" were implemented in the story mode, and giant boss-battles from previous "Storm" games (which were not present in "Generations") returned. It was released on March 5, 2013, in the North America, March 8 in Europe and April 18 in Japan.


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: An re-release, titled "Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 Full Burst" was released on October 22, 2013 in the North America, October 24 in Japan and January 31, 2014 in Europe; it features revamped cinematics, all previously-released DLC costumes (with the exceptions of Naruto's Goku costume and Sakura's Hello Kitty costume), a new story chapter and an additional Challenge Mode. It is the first game in the "Ultimate Ninja" series to be released for PC and Steam.


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: "Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Revolution", known in Japan as was officially announced on November 27, 2013, for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, followed by the announcement of a PC release on September 16, 2014. The game features a restructured fighting system and new ways of forming teams based on character skills, along with various other gameplay tweaks catered to competitive-play. Exclusively for the game, Masashi Kishimoto created the character Mecha-Naruto as well as new designs for the characters in the Akatsuki, whose back-stories covered in the game's "Ninja Escapades" mode (which includes OVAs, akin to "Generations"). The game also introduces a new mode titled "Ninja World Tournament" where the player can battle against three CPU fighters at the same time. By September 16, 2014, all versions of the game had been released in Japan, Europe and North America.


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: "Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4", known in Japan as , was announced on December 11, 2014, for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC as the seventh and final installment in the "Storm" series. It was released on February 4, 2016, in Japan, February 5, 2016 in Europe, and February 9, 2016 in North America.


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: An expansion, titled "Road to Boruto", covers the story of "" and was released on February 2, 2017, in Japan and February 3, 2017 in North America and Europe.


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: A Nintendo Switch port including all DLC was released on April 24, 2020. Coinciding with the release of the Switch port was a DLC pack titled "Next Generations," released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC via Steam"." The pack includes Kinshiki and Momoshiki Ōtsutsuki as playable characters, along with 11 Boruto-era costumes for characters in the original game.


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: In April 2017, it was announced that "Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm", "Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 2", and "Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3: Full Burst" would be bundled together and released as a compilation on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo Switch titled "Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Trilogy". The trilogy includes enhanced graphics and 1080p resolution. It was released on July 27, 2017, in Japan, while a digital-only western released on August 25, 2017 (each of the games can also be bought separately).


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: A physical western release, titled "Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm Legacy", contains the three games as well as "Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4: Road to Boruto", and was made available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows on August 25, 2017.


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: "Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Blazing", known as in Japan, is the first mobile platform game in the "Naruto: Ultimate Ninja" game series published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It's a turn-based action role-playing game, and is currently available on iOS and Android.


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: Players engage in combat by strategically moving their characters. These characters can level up, known as ‘awakening,’ to beat stronger opponents. After that, they can ‘limit break,’ to achieve an even stronger state. The game features the following playable game modes: Story, Emergency Mission (Missions to get items that improve your ninjas or new ninjas), Trial Missions (get Trial Coins to Limit Break characters), Phantom Castle (fight against Teams of other players and ascend to Floor 100 - prices for each floor), Ninja Road (get an Acquisition Stone to unlock an ability of a character you own by beating all 20 maps in a row), Ninja World Clash (PvP: Build a Team and play against online opponents). The game is free to play, and offers in-app purchase.


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: Various "Ultimate Ninja" games have become Namco Bandai's best-selling games with "Ultimate Ninja Storm 2" being its second best-selling game from 2010 behind "Tekken 6" with 1.1 million units sold. In January 2012, Namco Bandai announced that they have sold 10 million "Naruto" games worldwide, including 1.9 million units in Asia, 4.3 million in North America, and 3.8 million in Europe. In celebration CyberConnect2's CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama participated in the 2012 Paris International Marathon while cosplaying as Naruto Uzumaki, thanking fans. By 2016, more than 15 million units were sold. As of 2019, 20 million units have sold. In 2017, the mobile game "Ultimate Ninja Blazing" grossed () in China.


title: Naruto: Ultimate Ninja

text: Critical reception to the games has been positive. G4's "X-Play" gave "Ultimate Ninja" a three out of five for a creative comicbook feel and stylish cel-shaded graphics, but complained that the controls are too simple, and that the English voices are "slightly questionable." Both IGN and GameSpot noted the game was both accessible and enjoyable and praised the anime/manga-inspired graphics. Titles for the PlayStation Portable received considerably lower averages in gaming sites. "Ultimate Ninja Storm" was also the only video game to win the Excellent Prize in the Entertainment Division of the 13th annual Japan Media Arts Festival.


title: Billy Duffy

text: William Henry Duffy (born 12 May 1961) is an English rock musician, best known as the guitarist of the band The Cult.


title: Billy Duffy

text: Duffy was born and grew up in Manchester. He has Irish and Jewish heritage and ancestry. He began playing the guitar at the age of fourteen, being influenced by the music of Queen, Thin Lizzy, The Who, Aerosmith, Blue Öyster Cult, and the early work of Led Zeppelin. In the late 1970s he became involved in the punk movement, being influenced by the New York Dolls, The Stooges, Buzzcocks, and The Sex Pistols, as well as AC/DC (which he views as a proto-punk group). He started playing lead guitar with a number of different punk acts whilst still in school in the late 1970s, including the Studio Sweethearts. In the Manchester scene he personally influenced Johnny Marr to start performing as a guitarist, and encouraged Morrissey to make his first foray as singer/frontman with a punk-rock act titled The Nosebleeds.


title: Billy Duffy

text: After leaving school, Duffy left Manchester when the Studio Sweethearts moved to London, working for a period as a shop assistant at Johnsons in the King's Road, in Chelsea. The Studio Sweethearts subsequently broke up and Duffy began playing lead guitar part-time with the band entitled Theatre of Hate. Shortly after he met Ian Astbury, who was at that time the frontman/lead vocalist with the Southern Death Cult, who was sufficiently impressed with Duffy's talents that he quit the Southern Death Cult to start a new band with him called Death Cult. After releasing two singles, the band shortened its name to The Cult. In The Cult's debut single "Spiritwalker", Duffy created a distinctive flanged sound using an unfashionable at the time choice of guitar - a mid 1970s Gretsch White Falcon, which became his trademark sound and image. This was followed up the album titled "Love". It featured the hit "She Sells Sanctuary".


title: Billy Duffy

text: Duffy moved to Los Angeles in 1988 with Astbury, where both remain. There, the two writing partners (with longtime bassist Jamie Stewart) turned to stadium rock and recorded "Sonic Temple". The Cult reached a larger, mainstream audience, but the public's attention could not be sustained with their next album, "Ceremony", at the dawn of the grunge age.


title: Billy Duffy

text: Following the 'Ceremonial Stomp' tour of 1992, Astbury pressured Duffy to return to their roots, with The Cult's "The Cult" album. This would ultimately lead to Astbury's departure from Duffy and The Cult in 1995.


title: Billy Duffy

text: During The Cult's four-year hiatus, Duffy played with Mike Peters of The Alarm in a project called Coloursound.


title: Billy Duffy

text: Duffy reformed The Cult with Astbury in 1999, which led to a new recording contract with Atlantic Records. This was capped off by a show at Atlanta's Music Midtown Festival in May 2001, where over 60,000 people watched them perform, leading up to the release of "Beyond Good and Evil".


title: Billy Duffy

text: Their single to promote it, "Rise", which reached No. 125 in the US and No. 3 for 6 weeks on the mainstream rock chart, was removed from radio rotation a week after the album's release. Disappointing sales, reviews, and tour attendance ensued. In 2002 Astbury sent The Cult onto a hiatus once more, when he accepted an offer to sing with The Doors.


title: Billy Duffy

text: In early 2004, Duffy formed the covers band Cardboard Vampyres alongside Alice in Chains guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell. Also in the band were Mötley Crüe and Ratt vocalist John Corabi, The Cult bassist Chris Wyse and drummer Josh Howser. The band played at various venues in the United States between 2004 and 2005. They predominantly played along the West Coast. No albums were released by the band.


title: Billy Duffy

text: The Cult reformed in early 2006 and after playing several US concerts toured Europe. Duffy appeared in Ethan Dettenmaier's film, "Sin-Jin Smyth", which was filmed in 2006, but remains unreleased.


title: Billy Duffy

text: In early 2006 Duffy recorded a debut album with his new band, Circus Diablo. The album was recorded with Duffy playing lead guitar and former Cult touring bass player Billy Morrison handling lead vocals and bass guitar duties. Former The Almighty frontman, Ricky Warwick, played rhythm guitar on the CD. The former Cult, current Velvet Revolver, drummer Matt Sorum also played on the record.


title: Billy Duffy

text: After the completion of the album, former Fuel member Brett Scallions was added as bassist so Morrison could focus on being the lead singer. Then Jeremy Colson, formerly with Steve Vai, was brought in to be the full-time drummer for the band. Duffy's involvement ended in 2007.


title: Billy Duffy

text: In 2010, Duffy appeared on the TV-series, "Married to Rock", which starred his girlfriend AJ Celi. In October 2012, he performed with Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony at the Cabo Wabo Cantina for Sammy Hagar's Birthday Bash in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.


title: Billy Duffy

text: In an October 2016 interview with "PopMatters" journalist J.C. Maçek III, Duffy spoke about his favorite Cult song, saying "Jonesy [former Sex Pistols guitarist turned radio host Steve Jones] on Jonesy's Jukebox just played 'Love' from the Love album and that's my favorite Cult song," he tells me proudly. "I actually got, I have to admit, a teeny bit of a goose bump because it just captured exactly what I wanted to say with that kind of haunting rock. Kind of swaggery but not heavy, it's got ... Duffy searches for the right words to express his emotion at hearing the song from the outside, "I mean nobody ... I don't know who makes music like that!"


title: Billy Duffy

text: Billy Duffy identifies as being of Jewish ancestry and heritage. As of 2020, Duffy is engaged to former glamour model Leilani Dowding.


title: Billy Duffy

text: In the feature film, "England Is Mine", a biopic about the early years of Morrissey, Billy Duffy is played by Adam Lawrence.


title: 2022 in country music

text: The following songs placed within the Top 20 on the Hot Country Songs, Country Airplay, or Canada Country charts in 2022:


title: Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

text: The Aston Martin DBS, formerly called the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera before the 2022 model year, is a high-performance grand tourer produced by British luxury car manufacturer Aston Martin since 2018. In June 2018, Atin unveiled the car as the marque's V12 flagship grand tourer based on the DB11 V12 but featuring modifications that sets it apart from the DB11 lineage as a replacement to the Vanquish. This car uses the iconic DBS name plate used by both the original DBS and the DB9-based DBS V12. In addition, the car also uses the Superleggera name which is a tribute to Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera, who helped Aston Martin develop their lightest grand tourers in the 1960s and 1970s.


title: Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

text: The front of the DBS features a new front bumper with a large centre grille compared to the DB11 in order for improved engine cooling along with two air extractors on the sides to cool the brakes and two vents on the hood that aid in the engine cooling process. The German built 5.2-litre twin-turbocharged V12 engine is uprated at at 6,500 rpm and of torque from 1,800–5,000 rpm. In order to optimise the centre of gravity and weight distribution, the V12 unit has been positioned as low and as far back in the chassis as possible.


title: Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

text: The DBS Superleggera features the new ZF 8HP95 transmission with a shorter final-drive ratio of 2.93:1, in contrast to the DB11's 2.70:1. Chassis-wise, it also comes with torque vectoring and a mechanical limited slip differential for more focused track performance. The car also features the same aerodynamics first seen on the DB11 including Aston Martin's innovative Aeroblade system, but refines aerodynamics with an F1-inspired double-diffuser that helps the car generate of downforce – the highest figure ever for a series production Aston Martin. A new quad-pipe titanium exhaust system ensures improved engine sound while the usage of carbon fibre in major areas of the car lowers the weight down to .


title: Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

text: The DBS Superleggera can accelerate from 0– in 3.4 seconds, and 0– in 6.4 seconds. The car can also accelerate from in 4.2 seconds at fourth gear and can attain a top speed of . Three driving modes are available: GT, Sport, and Sport Plus which adjust the car's responsiveness.


title: Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

text: A Volante (convertible) model of the DBS was unveiled in April 2019. It has nearly identical performance and the same engine and transmission as the coupé but comes with an eight-layer soft top with eight colour options. For the first time on an Aston Martin automobile, the windshield surround is available in carbon fibre as well as the rear tonneau cover.


title: Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

text: In May 2019, Aston Martin unveiled a DBS Superleggera to celebrate 50 years of the James Bond film "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". The car followed the specification of the original DBS used in the film, with an Olive Green exterior colour and a traditional Aston Martin Grill. Only 50 units were made.


title: Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

text: In October 2019, Aston Martin revealed the Aston Martin DBS GT Zagato at the Audrain’s Newport Concours in the United States. The car is based on the DBS Superleggera and peak power has been raised from 715 hp to 760 hp. It can only be purchased as part of the £6 million before tax "DBZ Centenary Collection" pack which includes a DB4 GT Zagato continuation as well as a DBS GT Zagato. Only 19 "packs" were available for sale.


title: Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

text: The DBS Superleggera 007 Edition was revealed in August 2020. The 007 Edition features Ceramic Grey exterior paint with contrasting black carbon fiber roof, mirror caps, splitter, diffuser, and rear spoiler. It also has gloss black, diamond-turned 21-inch wheels. Production is limited to 25 units.


title: Aston Martin DBS Superleggera

text: Matt Saunders of "Autocar" rewarded the DBS Superleggera with a perfect five-star score stating, "This is already an outstanding super-GT and represents a rejuvenated British car maker at its absolute best." Motoring journalist Jeremy Clarkson criticized the DBS Superleggera Volante stating that it "endlessly catches it's chin-mounted skid plates on speed humps" while also criticizing the speed claiming, "It's almost too fast" and that buyers "would be well advised to treat the throttle with extreme caution" concluding that buyers would be better off with the DB11 Volante." The DBS made an appearance in the James Bond film "No Time to Die".


title: Corner Gas

text: Corner Gas is a Canadian television sitcom created by Brent Butt. The series ran for six seasons from 2004 to 2009. Re-runs still air on CTV, CTV2, CTV Comedy Channel, Much, MTV, E! and are streaming on Crave and Amazon Prime. The series was followed by a feature film titled "", with the entire cast reprising their roles. The film was released for a limited theatrical run in December 2014.


title: Corner Gas

text: Deriving its name from the roadside gas station in the fictional town of Dog River, Saskatchewan, Corner Gas is the only gas station for in any direction. Brent Leroy (Brent Butt) is the proprietor of the station and Wanda Dollard (Nancy Robertson) works at the station's convenience store as a retail assistant. An adjoining coffee shop, The Ruby, is owned by Lacey Burrows (Gabrielle Miller), who inherited it from her Aunt Ruby.


title: Corner Gas

text: The series completed its run following broadcast of its sixth season on April 13, 2009, with a total of 107 episodes. The show averaged one million viewers per episode. "Corner Gas" received six Gemini Awards, and was nominated almost 70 times for various awards.


title: Corner Gas

text: On April 6, 2009, Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall signed a proclamation that declared April 13, 2009, ""Corner Gas" Day" in Saskatchewan.


title: Corner Gas

text: Production of an animated adaptation, "Corner Gas Animated", was announced in December 2016, and premiered on The Comedy Network on April 2, 2018, featuring the complete original cast voicing their original characters, save for Janet Wright, who died in November 2016, the month prior to announcement. The role of Emma is voiced in the animated version by actress Corrine Koslo.


title: Corner Gas

text: The series was created by Canadian comedian Brent Butt, who imagined what his life might be like had he remained in a small Saskatchewan town rather than pursuing stand-up comedy. He originally developed the storyline for CTV and The Comedy Network.


title: Corner Gas

text: The show focuses on the lifestyle of small-town folk; though set in a small town in Saskatchewan, it is not chiefly about Saskatchewan or Canada, but rather the day-to-day interactions of the residents of Dog River.


title: Corner Gas

text: "Corner Gas" was produced by CTV and Prairie Pants Production. Prairie Pants Production is a company assembled by Brent Butt, Virginia Thompson and 335 Productions. 335 Productions is a partnership between Brent Butt and David Storey. (The name of the production company is derived from the fact that Tisdale, Saskatchewan, Butt's home town, lies at the junction of Saskatchewan Highways 3 and 35.) At The Comedy Network, Michelle Daly is Director of Content and Ed Robinson is the President and General Manager. At CTV Inc., Susanne Boyce is President, Creative, Content and Channels and again Ed Robinson is Executive Vice-President, Programming. Brent Butt was a driving force as creator, writer, showrunner executive producer, actor and, occasionally, director of the show.


title: Corner Gas

text: Paul Mather, Mark Farrell, Brent Butt, Andrew Carr, Kevin White, Robert Sheridan, Norm Hiscock, Dylan "Worts" Wertz and Gary Pearson all contributed to writing the series. David Storey, Mark Farrell, Robert de Lint, Jeff Beesley and Brent Butt provided direction in the program.


title: Corner Gas

text: "Corner Gas" was promoted by CTV as the network's "first original narrative comedy series." While it is not, in fact, the first Canadian-produced sitcom ever aired on CTV, having been preceded by "The Trouble with Tracy", "George", "Snow Job", "Excuse My French", and "Check It Out!", it is the first CTV sitcom in which the network itself has held a primary production role, rather than acting solely as a holder of broadcast rights, and the first to postdate the network's late-1990s corporate restructuring from a cooperative of its affiliated stations into a conventional corporation. "Corner Gas" can also be verifiably called the most successful of these shows.


title: Corner Gas

text: "Corner Gas" was filmed entirely in Saskatchewan. The interior shots (Ruby Café interior, Police Department, Oscar and Emma's house, etc.) were filmed at Canada Saskatchewan Production Studios in Regina. All the outdoor scenes and all scenes that take place in the gas station were filmed on location in Rouleau, a small town on Highway 39 between Moose Jaw and Weyburn. The grain elevator was repainted to read "Dog River" instead of "Rouleau"; however, the water tower still reads "Rouleau"with post production effects used to repaint it to read "Dog River" in the first season episode "Grad 68". Regina is known as the "city" in "Corner Gas".<ref name="escape/"></ref>


title: Corner Gas

text: On 28September 2014, the building that was used as the FOO[D] MAR[KE]T, the local grocery store, was destroyed in a fire.


title: Corner Gas

text: On 4November 2016, the site that was used for both Corner Gas and the Ruby was demolished due to the foundations sinking.


title: Corner Gas

text: In summer 2021, the police station building collapsed, and the debris was removed. On 5November 2021, the grain elevator burned to the ground.


title: Corner Gas

text: Each episode of "Corner Gas" is written following a specific formula: two or three (almost always three, once four) storylines are presented in each show. The main storyline usually opens and closes the episode and is most of the time driven by a single character. The secondary plots are sometimes slightly intertwined with the other stories.


title: Corner Gas

text: The "Corner Gas" opening sequence follows a cold open. The opening theme music, "Not a Lot Goin' On", was written by Craig Northey of the rock band Odds and Jesse Valenzuela of the rock band Gin Blossoms, while the closing theme, "My Happy Place" was written by Northey and performed by Odds.


title: Corner Gas

text: Corner Gas is the only gas station for in any direction (according to the first two episodes of season one, "Ruby Reborn" and "Tax Man"). Brent Leroy (Brent Butt) is the proprietor of the station and Wanda Dollard (Nancy Robertson) works at the station's convenience store as a retail assistant. An adjoining diner, The Ruby, is owned by Lacey Burrows (Gabrielle Miller), who inherited it from her Aunt Ruby and moved to Dog River from Toronto. Brent's parents, Oscar Leroy (Eric Peterson) and Emma Leroy (Janet Wright), are lifetime residents of Dog River. Dog River's police force, consisting entirely of veteran Davis Quinton (Lorne Cardinal) and rookie Karen Pelly (Tara Spencer-Nairn), keep the peace in the small town—a very simple task—and the officers have an overabundance of free time. Finally, Brent's best friend Richard Henry "Hank" Yarbo (Fred Ewanuick), who is constantly unemployed, spends his time hanging out with Dog River's residents and drinking coffee, for which he rarely pays, at The Ruby.


title: Corner Gas

text: The first episode of "Corner Gas" aired on January 22, 2004, and attracted 1.5 million viewers. The first season consisted of 13 episodes. Less than two months after the first episode aired, CTV renewed it for a second season of 18 episodes.


title: Corner Gas

text: Butt's main co-writers were "This Hour has 22 Minutes" writers Mark Farrell, Paul Mather, Kevin White, and Andrew Carr.


title: Corner Gas

text: As broadcast of the fourth season finale approached, there was a flurry of news reports suggesting that the series was coming to an unexpected end, based upon televised promotions for the episode, leaked plot details, and wording of a CTV press release issued on March 6, 2007, that implied that the series finale would air on March 12, 2007. Two segments of production footage with time code circulated on YouTube also seemed to indicate a series finale as imminent despite the show's continued success in Canada and recent U.S. sale. On March 7, 2007, CTV clarified its press release, stating it was a season finale, and on March 13, 2007, CTV confirmed an order for a 19-episode fifth season, that premiered on September 24, 2007.


title: Corner Gas

text: On April 10, 2008, as production of the sixth season began, Butt announced via a press release that he and his production company, Prairie Pants, had decided to conclude production of the series after the sixth season, with the final episodes airing in the spring of 2009. Butt said the decision to end the series while still a popular offering on CTV was "a very difficult decision ... and one I felt I had to make. (CTV) made it clear that they were keen to do more seasons ... I wanted to exit gracefully, on top of our game."


title: Corner Gas

text: The show's final episode aired on April 13, 2009, airing in simulcast on CTV, The Comedy Network and A. The episode attracted 2,914,000 viewers on terrestrial television and an additional 235,000 on The Comedy Network, for a total viewership of 3,114,000.


title: Corner Gas

text: The surnames of all of the main characters and some recurring characters on the show (except for Mayor 'Fitzy' Fitzgerald) are names of small towns in Saskatchewan.


title: Corner Gas

text: A number of notable Canadian celebrities and politicians appeared as guest stars or in cameo roles on "Corner Gas". Some celebrities made the trip to the Rouleau or Regina sets to film their appearances, others were filmed in the applicable locations (e.g., scenes involving cast members of "Canadian Idol" and "Canada AM" were filmed at the respective programs' studios).


title: Corner Gas

text: Two successive sitting prime ministers, Paul Martin and Stephen Harper, made cameo appearances; "Corner Gas" is the only fictional sitcom (as opposed to sketch comedy series) in which sitting prime ministers have appeared. Two successive sitting premiers of Saskatchewan, Lorne Calvert and Brad Wall, also appeared in episodes. "Demolition" features Former Governor-General Adrienne Clarkson, taking a sledgehammer to an old barn. Ben Mulroney, host of TV shows "Canadian Idol" and "eTalk Daily" and the son of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, parodies himself during the third season episode "Dog River Vice".


title: Corner Gas

text: In the first season Kevin McDonald of "The Kids in the Hall" played Marvin Drey, a disliked Revenue Canada agent in the episode "Tax Man"'. In the same episode Dan Matheson, a news anchor for CTV, appeared as himself. Julie Stewart played a paint store clerk (parodying her role in "Cold Squad") in "Grad 68". Comedian Mike Wilmot played Carl Vaughn, Brent's snobby cousin. Colin Mochrie, a prolific Canadian comedy actor best known for his work in the British and American versions of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?", made a cameo appearance in the episode "Comedy Night" as part of a joke about how he seems to turn up on every Canadian TV show. Pamela Wallin, former CBC newscaster, later Canadian Consul General and senator, a native of Wadena, Saskatchewan, played herself. "Canadian Idol" judges Sass Jordan, Zack Werner, Jake Gold, and Farley Flex appeared as themselves rating Brent's rendition of "It would never rain in Dog River ... If I Could Squeegee the Sky" in the episode "Hook, Line and Sinker". TSN sportscaster (and "" alumnus) Jennifer Hedger and her "SportsCentre" colleague Darren Dutchyshen appeared as themselves in the episode "Face Off".


title: Corner Gas

text: The second season also attracted notable personalities. "Wedding Card" featured hockey star Darryl Sittler as himself. Pat Fiacco, then-mayor of Regina, appears in the episode "Whataphobia" as Stan, the owner of Dog River's miniature golf course. "Poor Brent" has an appearance by long-time "CTV National News" anchor Lloyd Robertson, playing himself. Canadian and world champion curlers Randy Ferbey and Dave Nedohin (both of whom curl for Alberta) appear as themselves providing advice during the hotly contested Dog River curling championship, the Clavet Cup in episode "Hurry Hard". The episode "An American In Saskatchewan" features Mark McKinney, a veteran of both "The Kids in the Hall" and "Saturday Night Live" as Bill, an American who visits Dog River by accident. Saskatchewan-born musician Colin James appears as a local musician (although it is implied that he's actually playing himself) who performs an audition in Brent's garage. The rock group The Tragically Hip appear as "local kids" who practise in Brent's garage. The Tragically Hip play a rough version of "It Can't Be Nashville Every Night" off their "In Between Evolution" album. Both The Tragically Hip and Colin James are in the episode "Rock On!"


title: Corner Gas

text: Singer Jann Arden appears as herself in "Fun Run". Noted actress Shirley Douglas (mother of Kiefer Sutherland, and daughter of Tommy Douglas, former Premier of Saskatchewan) plays a woman with the hots for Oscar in "Trees a Crowd". Then-federal finance minister Ralph Goodale appears as a Ruby Café customer in "Picture Perfect". (The episode aired the same day Goodale filed a "mini-budget" in the House of Commons.) Lorne Calvert, premier of Saskatchewan, appears as himself. He appears three times: twice to poke fun at Sweden and once to almost get hit by a thrown newspaper during the appropriately named "Ruby Newsday". Vicki Gabereau appears as herself during a fantasy sequence in the same episode. Prior to the debut of "Corner Gas", the cast had appeared on Gabereau's CTV talk show, during which Brent Butt promised to get the talk show host a guest appearance. "Merry Gasmas" features "This Hour has 22 Minutes" anchor Gavin Crawford as a worker in the Calgary International Airport. He would always call cities their airport names (YYC, YEG) which confused Lacey horribly. In the same episode Dan Redican from "The Frantics", and more recently "Puppets Who Kill", makes an appearance as a worker in the Regina International Airport. He repeatedly says "made that call." "Comedy Inc." star Roman Danylo makes a cameo as a passenger sitting next to Lacey on a plane from Alberta to Vancouver. He claims to be a "cat doctor," and not a veterinarian. He manages to out-chat Lacey while talking about cats during the same episode. Ken Read, also known as "The Crazy Canuck," is a champion alpine skier and member of the Canadian Olympic Committee. During episode "Physical Credit", Read receives a browbeating from Oscar (which first aired the day after closing ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics).


title: Corner Gas

text: Olympic medal winner Cindy Klassen makes a cameo appearance in the fourth season episode "Dog River Dave". Mike Holmes, the star of "Holmes on Homes", helps to fix Oscar's bathroom. Wanda states that she had formerly dated the Holmes character in the episode "Jail House". CTV CEO Ivan Fecan makes a cameo appearance during the episode "Blog River". "Gopher It" featured then Prime Minister Stephen Harper as himself. "Canada AM" co-anchors Seamus O'Regan and Beverly Thomson appear, playing themselves. Unlike most cameos, O'Regan and Thomson appear extensively in this episode to parody their on-screen image. "CTV National News" reporter Rosemary Thompson appears, playing herself in a scrum with the Prime Minister at the gas station.


title: Corner Gas

text: During the fifth season three episodes bring in notable personalities. In "Coming Distractions", Duane "Dog" Chapman and Beth Smith from "Dog the Bounty Hunter" appear to arrest Brent during a fantasy sequence. In the episode "Bed and Brake Fast" hockey player Travis Moen makes a cameo appearance with the Stanley Cup. In the episode "Final Countdown" actor Kiefer Sutherland makes a cameo appearance. In the same episode, Shirley Douglas' voice is heard.


title: Corner Gas

text: Michael Bublé appears in the sixth season episode "TV Free Dog River". He calls in (unseen at first) to Davis's jazz radio program, requesting a song from Michael Bublé. After Davis says that "Michael Bublé isn't jazz", the camera cuts to the actual singer, who says sadly that he "cuts across several genres of music".


title: Corner Gas

text: Dog River (Rouleau, Saskatchewan) has a population of "about 500" according to "Census Sensibility". According to the "Corner Gas" tagline, it is from nowhere, but still within a relatively short drive to "The City", where characters are often shown going to shop or attend "support meetings", in the case of Davis and Lacey. The rival town of Wullerton is "just down the road". It is stated in the episode "Tax Man" that Corner Gas is the only gas station for in any direction. Series creator Brent Butt has said the town lies somewhere between Regina and Saskatoon; these two cities are apart, so this fact does not contradict anything said on the series. In fact, the term "the city" has been used at various times in the series to refer to Regina. The third season episode, "Fun Run" has one character drive to Weyburn for a lark, suggesting Dog River is probably closer to Regina than it is to Saskatoon. In the episode "Outside Joke", when the Corner Gas station is believed to actually be outside the town limits, it is said to be in the fictional municipality of Pitt Creek. In "Kid Stuff", Wanda says it is south of the also fictional Crowley Lake.


title: Corner Gas

text: The town's name is an "homage" to series creator Brent Butt's hometown of Tisdale, Saskatchewan, through which the Doghide River flows. However, in the show itself, the second season episode "Rock On!" revealed that the town was named after a great uncle of Lacey's who drowned a dozen dogs in the river. She discovered this trivia while researching information for a history plaque. In order to play down this unsavoury branch of her family tree, Lacey instead used a story that Karen made up—that pioneers somehow got hold of a hot air balloon, got an aerial view of the town site, and noticed that the creek formed a shape similar to that of a dog's leg. "Block Party" revealed that the town was founded in 1905, and its founder was a Mr. Harold Main after whom Main Street was named (it was later renamed Centennial Street in 2005, the origin of the name being forgotten.) Main also constructed Dog River's first building, a wooden shack that would later be burned down by Hank Yarbo a century later in order to maintain the accuracy of his Lego scale model of the town (he ran out of blocks and could not make a replica of the shack.)


title: Corner Gas

text: A real-life Regina tour operator regularly takes busloads of tourists to Rouleau to visit "Dog River". Visitors can tour the on-location sets of "Corner Gas", including the service station. Many components of Dog River are, in fact, real attributes of Rouleau, notably the combined liquor and insurance store.


title: Corner Gas

text: On February 9, 2010, Google Street View extended its coverage of Canada, including all streets within Rouleau. The remnants of the Corner Gas and Ruby standing sets, along with the grain elevator labelled "Dog River" are visible from ground level at the junction of Highways 39 and 714. The grain elevator, built in 1972, was destroyed by fire on Nov. 5, 2021.


title: Corner Gas

text: After falling into disrepair when the show ended, the Rouleau sets were purchased by businessman Sylvain Senecal and restored as a souvenir shop. The sets were open from May 1 until late September where Corner Gas, Saskatchewan and regular convenience store items could be purchased, and were later once again utilized for "Corner Gas: The Movie". However, by 2016, the Ruby and Corner Gas sets had once again fallen into disrepair and, due to being built on a bog, had begun to sink and were declared unsafe. On November 4, 2016, the buildings were demolished. Despite this, however, the town of Rouleau announced at the same time plans for a walking tour of surviving "Corner Gas" sets to launch in 2017, while the Western Development Museum branch in Moose Jaw announced plans to exhibit artifacts from the series, including the original Corner Gas sign.


title: Corner Gas

text: The town has its own newspaper, "The Dog River Howler" (usually just called ""The Howler""), to which almost everybody has contributed at one point or another. Its headlines are usually rife with inaccurate, sensationalist reporting. An example of exaggeration can be seen in "Hero Sandwich," in which a proposal to install traffic lights at a four-way intersection prompts the headline "Crosswalk HELL—Mayor Insane." Another example occurs (mentioned in the same episode) when coyotes wander into town to eat cats, prompting the incorrectly spelled headline "Cattle Killed by Werewolfs." An example of simply untrue reporting can be seen in the first episode, in which a headline reads "Moose Jaw Gets NBA Franchise.", and at an unseen time, they declared that Canada was apparently at war with Switzerland. The paper is also rife with misspellings, for example in the third season that "Hank is PHYCIC (phycic [sic])." (the story was "contunied" on page 30) or in the fourth season that "Cop nabs barely thief" (after Karen mentions that the person who was caught was 'barely a thief' for having stolen a grain truck).


title: Corner Gas

text: The "Police Department", consisting of Davis and Karen, keeps the peace in Dog River, though most of the time their duties consist of shooting pests at farms and using their radar guns to clock the flying speed of sparrows at . They also park behind the "surveillance bush" waiting for speeders.


title: Corner Gas

text: In "The Littlest Yarbo," a short-lived Fire Department consisting of two firefighters, David and Carol (both showing remarkable similarities to Davis and Karen, respectively), was established by the mayor when the volunteer fire chief decided to sleep in as opposed to respond to a fire. The volunteer system was reestablished after Hank, Davis, and Oscar lit an uncontrollable leaf fire and the fire department did not respond as they were chasing a stray dog (the same one Hank thought to be "The Littlest Hobo"). Fitzy saw Davis in the aftermath as the only first responder there and gave him the new title of Chief, Volunteer Fire Department.


title: Corner Gas

text: The Dog River Police have two police cars, both 1994 Ford Crown Victorias. With the exception of the first episode and "Dark Circles," the police use only one of them.


title: Corner Gas

text: The residents of Dog River have a pathological dislike of the residents of Wullerton, a neighbouring town, to the point that they spit on the ground whenever the rival town is mentioned. They are so used to doing so that they sometimes do not realize it when they spit. Dog River's local newspaper, the Howler, will even print "(SPIT)" after printing the word "Wullerton". However, the people of Wullerton may not hate Dog River, as seen in the fourth season's finale. (However, this was only part of Hank's fantasy sequence, and may not accurately reflect Wullerton's actual sentiment towards Dog River). The reason for this antipathy was never explained. Publicity for the second season indicated that the season finale would reveal the reason for the spitting; however, the episode as broadcast did not actually do so. This practice of looking down on neighbouring towns is common in many prairie communities, primarily those in Saskatchewan and Alberta, such as Tisdale, Melfort, and Wilcox. Wullerton is first shown onscreen in "", as for the reason Dog River residents hate it so much: Wullerton is a creepy, eerily "Stepford Wives"-ish town where everyone is excessively nice and clean-cut, which tends to scare any visitors from Dog River.


title: Corner Gas

text: Thunderface is an in-universe fictional band that was formed in the mid-'80s by lead singer Hank Yarbo, lead guitar player Brent Leroy, and bass guitar player Wanda Dollard. In 2005, the band was expanded to include drummer Karen Pelly, the most competent musician in the group. (While filming, Fred Ewanuick did his own singing as Hank, Brent Butt played all of his own guitar parts, and Nancy Robertson learned to play bass shortly before filming commenced. Only Tara Spencer-Nairn did not do her own playing for the episode.)


title: Corner Gas

text: Thunderface has suffered from relative anonymity due to confusion with their name (as well as the fact that they have had only one gig since 1986). They have been referred to as "Rumblepuss," "Thunderbread," "Thunderchunks," and "Wonderface," among other names. Their sound is described as similar to "a small animal caught in some kind of machinery," and their sole gig since 1986 was booked due to the humorous nature of their poor performance. Along with their gig in 1986, they seemed to have done some school performances considering they blew the principal's eyebrows off. The only song they have been heard to play is "Capital Cash" by Fast Exit, a band that Brent Butt played guitar in before he got into comedy.


title: Corner Gas

text: The Surveillance Bush is a bush that is only seen in the first episode and the last episode. Karen is seen hiding behind it in the Police Cruiser in Ruby Reborn. Davis and Karen are also seen on the last episode hiding behind it before tailing Brent in the final episode. Since there is no wind a cast member is actually lying down shaking the bush. The bush was only planted for those two scenes.


title: Corner Gas

text: In 2006, "Corner Gas" was the only Canadian-made top-20 TV show in all of Canada (other than hockey), the rest being American imports. It debuted in January 2004, outperforming all U.S. sitcoms among adults 25–54.


title: Corner Gas

text: Since 2004, the series's production coincided with that of another CTV program, "Robson Arms" in which Gabrielle Miller and Fred Ewanuick also co-starred. Miller also had a recurring role in the series "Alienated" in 2004, giving her the rare distinction of playing major roles in three unrelated television series during the same calendar year (although "Robson Arms" was not broadcast until 2005). As of fall 2007, two seasons of "Robson Arms" featuring Miller and Ewanuick have been produced and released to DVD.


title: Corner Gas

text: Early in the run of "Corner Gas", "Toronto Sun" television critic Bill Brioux reported an unconfirmed rumour that it had been unsuccessfully pitched to CBC Television, which came to be cited as evidence that the public broadcaster was out of touch with Canadian audiences. This was later revealed to be untrue; The Comedy Network was in fact the first and only network to which the show was proposed.


title: Corner Gas

text: Fred Ewanuick appeared as Hank on the "Royal Canadian Air Farce"'s 300th episode in a spoof of "Corner Gas", in which Yasir (Carlo Rota) and Sarah (Sheila McCarthy) from CBC's "Little Mosque on the Prairie" bought the gas station and fired Brent. Hank then debated with them the location of Mercy (the Saskatchewan town where "Little Mosque" takes place) in relation to Dog River.


title: Corner Gas

text: In the summer of 2006, the cast of "Corner Gas" performed a fund-raising benefit event for Regina's Globe Theatre called "Corner Gas...Live," in which the cast performed a live episode of the TV series. The popularity of the hit sitcom caused such a rush for tickets that the Globe Theatre's online ticket sales system briefly went down as a result. Another benefit was held during the summer of 2007.


title: Corner Gas

text: On November 24, 2006, it was announced that "Corner Gas" would air on the American WGN America beginning September 17, 2007. "Corner Gas" was syndicated to WGN America by Multi-Platform Distribution Company (MPDC), which acquired the American distribution rights for broadcast stations and cable channels. The show was offered to cable networks such as WGN America on an all-cash basis; the show was also offered to local stations on cash-plus-barter basis, though it was unknown if any channels other than WGN America carried the series. The series was carried by WGN America during the 2008–2009 television season; it was not broadcast in Chicago on WGN-TV.


title: Corner Gas

text: In an unusual case, WGN America picked up Season 5 episodes while they were airing contemporaneously on the show's home network CTV. In most cases, new episodes usually take a year or more to air in another country.


title: Corner Gas

text: On October 3, 2019, Amazon-owned IMDb announced that it will be exclusively streaming the entire Corner Gas franchise on their platform for free to American viewers starting October 15, 2019.


title: Corner Gas

text: The first season was released on DVD in Canada on October 19, 2004. In keeping with the theme of the series, each DVD set included a coupon good for a free coffee at Petro-Canada service stations. At the Canadian Entertainment Network Awards, Season one DVD was honoured as "Best Canadian DVD-English". The second season was released on DVD on September 27, 2005, and features the distinction of being one of the few regular TV series whose DVD box set includes described video for the visually impaired. The second season set was released by CTV and Video Service Corporation and includes a peek at Season 3, bloopers, cast and crew interviews, a Thunderface music video as well as all season 2 episodes. The season three DVD was released on October 3, 2006. Unlike the previous sets, the third season DVD set is presented in widescreen (letterboxed on 4:3 televisions, Windowboxed on widescreen TVs). The fourth season was released on DVD on September 18, 2007. From the fourth season forward, the episodes are presented in proper anamorphic widescreen. This was the first time the DVD set of the previous season was released before the current season started airing; the set includes a series of "Mobisodes" which were short (approximately two minutes each) skits focusing on the main characters. Season 5 was released on DVD on October 7, 2008, and is presented in a bobble-head theme. Besides all nineteen season 5 episodes, the set includes "Corner Gas" character commentaries, "My Happy Place" in a music video format and bloopers. Season 5 DVD set has enclosed a $10 discount coupon towards a "Corner Gas" mechanic shirt. Season 6 was released on June 9, 2009, two months after the series finale.


title: Corner Gas

text: In Australia only the first three series have been released. The cover art for the seasons differ from the Region 1 releases. The first two seasons having the group of the cast in front of the gas station which is in the distant background, while the third season has them in front of the grain silo. Unlike the Canadian release, the Australian version of Season 3 contains anamorphic widescreen versions of the episodes. Curiously, though, almost all of these episodes do not have any on-screen actor credits or captions (such as the show's writers/directors) over any of the live action, suggesting that perhaps the DVD company had to go back to the original film elements in order to get an anamorphic picture.


title: Corner Gas

text: Brent Butt offered the eight-city "Gassed Up" tour beginning March 21, 2004. The $70,000 "Great Canadian Gas Giveaway Tour" began September 27, 2004. In late September 2004, to promote the start of the second season, the cast members of "Corner Gas" travelled to cities across Canada where they pumped gas at local service stations for the day (the fuel being provided to motorists free of charge). By the halfway point of the promotion, more than 40,000 litres of free gasoline had been pumped. The cast of "Corner Gas" crossed Canada visiting six cities in a comedy tour called "CTV Presents Corner Gas Live!" which began September 21, 2005. Eight Canadian radio stations broadcast the show live at the start of the fourth season.


title: Corner Gas

text: In 2005, "Corner Gas" partnered with The Comedy Network to host a contest called "Comic Genius". The majority of episodes were broadcast online, with the one-hour finale broadcast live on The Comedy Network in February 2006. The winner, John Beuhler, won $10,000 and a guest appearance on the show.


title: Corner Gas

text: "Corner Gas Online" provides cast biographies, episode synopsis, bloopers, and a visit to Virtual Dog River. The Virtual Dog River features The Howler providing the latest news about the television series. There are online games available such as prairie scramble, combine racing and the perfect pump when visiting various locations in virtual Dog River. Oscar and Emma Leroy's virtual home features "Corner Gas" bloopers. Visiting the Ruby will provide an online chat room. The virtual gas station is an online shop for licensed merchandise.


title: Corner Gas

text: "Corner Gas" episodes can now be watched on demand on The CTV Video Player at CTV.ca and thecomedynetwork.ca.


title: Corner Gas

text: "Corner Gas" has spawned a merchandising business, with hundreds of retail items, sold-out live touring productions, and best-selling DVDs. A companion book to the show, called "Tales from Dog River: The Complete Corner Gas Guide", was published on November 4, 2006. It was written by Toronto journalist Michele Sponagle and was produced in conjunction with CTV, Penguin Canada, and Prairie Pants Productions. The book debuted in the number two spot among new releases, behind only Vincent Lam's Giller Prize-winning book "Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures". On December 12, 2006, it was the top-selling non-fiction paperback in Canada, according to BookMarket data. It includes cast interviews, an episode guide, insider jokes, bloopers, best lines, a look at the real Dog River (Rouleau, Saskatchewan), and a chronology on how the show was created from inception to debut episode. Author Michele Sponagle went on a book tour to cities across Canada, including Ottawa, Halifax, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver to promote the book, alongside various cast members.


title: Corner Gas

text: A follow-up to the book called "Dog River Confidential: The Super, Even More Complete Corner Gas Guide," also by author Michele Sponagle, was released by Penguin Canada on November 10, 2009.


title: Corner Gas

text: "" premiered on December 3, 2014 for a limited five-day release in select Canadian theaters. All of the major cast members returned for the film. A Kickstarter campaign for "Corner Gas: The Movie" was successfully funded on June 19, 2014. TSN's Jay Onrait and Dan O'Toole are in the film (formerly of Fox Sports 1), as well as TSN anchor Darren Dutchyshen and Olympic Gold Medalist Jon Montgomery.


title: Corner Gas

text: The movie made its broadcast premiere on CTV on 17 December 2014 and has been released on both Blu-ray and DVD.


title: Corner Gas

text: A 13-episode animated series, titled "Corner Gas Animated" was announced on December 19, 2016. The series features the voices of many original cast members (Corrine Koslo provided the voice of Emma Leroy, replacing the late Janet Wright). It debuted in April 2018. In October 2019, it was announced that it was renewed for a third season to air on CTV Comedy Channel in 2020.In October 2019, after a third season renewal, during the second season broadcast, it was announced that Amazon's IMDb TV (now Amazon Freevee), starting October 20. The fourth and final season premiered in July 2021 on CTV. Freevee announced in April 2022, as part of their rebrand from IMDb TV to Freevee, that the final season would release on June 20, 2022.


title: Corner Gas

text: "Corner Gas" presently airs in 26 countries. Free land was awarded through the "Corner Gas" website which enabled a Quebec couple to move to Climax. In Rouleau, a local resident started a "Ruby" café. In the third season episode "Mail Fraud", Brent used the term "staycation" to explain the act of taking a vacation without actually leaving home. This term, originally coined in an article from "The Myrtle Beach Sun-News", is now in use on many pages on the internet and has passed into the general lexicon, even to the extent of being included in "Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary".


title: Corner Gas

text: "Corner Gas" has won a variety of awards since it debuted as a series January 2004 including nine Canadian Comedy Awards and six Gemini Awards. The Canadian Comedy Awards include Best Direction (TV Series)—2004–2006, Best Male Performance (TV)—2004 and 2005 (Brent Butt), 2007 (Eric Peterson), Best Female Performance (TV)—2006 (Janet Wright) and Best Writing (TV Series)—2004 and 2007.


title: Corner Gas

text: The six Gemini Awards include Best Comedy Program or Series—2005, 2006, and 2007; Best Ensemble Performance in a Comedy Program or Series—for the episode "Gopher It", 2007; Best Writing in a Comedy or Variety Program or Series—Mark Ferrell for the episode "Gopher It", 2007; and Best Interactive—2005. 2007 was the third consecutive year that "Corner Gas" won the best comedy award.


title: Corner Gas

text: The show also has eight other Gemini Award nominations. It was nominated for an International Emmy Award in 2004.


title: Corner Gas

text: In 2004, the show was honoured with the DGC Award win for Outstanding Team Achievement in a TV Series—Comedy. They were also nominated in 2005. "Corner Gas" received the "WGC Award" win in 2005 for Best Comedy & Variety Program. "Corner Gas" also lays claim to seven Leo Award wins.


title: Corner Gas

text: "Corner Gas" received two awards at the 7th Canadian Comedy Awards. The awards were given for best direction and to Janet Wright achieved the award for top female performer. "Corner Gas" writers received an award for the episode "Comedy Night" at the 9th annual Canadian Screenwriting Awards on April 18, 2005. Writers Mark Farrell and Robert Sheridan received the 2008 Canadian Screenwriting Award for best half-hour drama series on April 14, 2008.


title: The Big Year

text: The Big Year is a 2011 American comedy film starring Jack Black, Owen Wilson and Steve Martin. "The Big Year" was directed by David Frankel and written by Howard Franklin. It was based on the 2004 nonfiction book "The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature and Fowl Obsession" by Mark Obmascik. The book followed three men on a quest for a Big Year - a competition among birders to see who can see and identify the greatest number of species of birds in North America (north of Mexico) in a calendar year. The actual men were Sandy Komito, Al Levantin, and Greg Miller, who were chasing Komito's prior record. The film uses the same premise with fictional characters.


title: The Big Year

text: The film was released on October 14, 2011, in the United States. Filming took place from May to July 2010. It was released in the United Kingdom on December 2, 2011.


title: The Big Year

text: The film follows three seasoned birders who each set out to achieve a Big Year. They are Brad Harris, a 36-year-old computer programmer based in Baltimore; Stu Preissler, founder and CEO of a New York company bearing his name; and a roofing contractor named Kenny Bostick, who holds the current Big Year record of 732 birds.


title: The Big Year

text: Bostick is obsessively possessive of his record, but his third wife Jessica is concerned; this was supposed to be the year they focused on conceiving a child. She also believes that Bostick's birding obsession is what destroyed his two previous marriages. He is so competitive that the others use his name as a kind of expletive: "Bostick!"


title: The Big Year

text: Brad is a skilled birder who can identify nearly any species solely by sound. He hates his job maintaining the operational software of a nuclear power plant in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania. Living with his parents after a failed marriage, an aborted career at Dell, and dropping out of grad school, he hopes that doing a Big Year will give him a sense of purpose and possibly even make his father proud of him.


title: The Big Year

text: Stu is the founder and CEO of an enormous Manhattan-based chemical conglomerate which he built from the ground up, starting in his garage. After decades of corporate success, he is ready to retire to Colorado with his architect wife. Fear of an empty schedule led him to come back from a previous retirement, but now he wants to leave his company in the hands of his two lieutenants. The company is in the middle of complicated negotiations to merge with a competitor, so his two anointed successors keep calling him back to New York for important meetings; to some extent he is a prisoner of his own success. A Big Year has been his lifelong dream and he's pursuing it with the full support of his wife.


title: The Big Year

text: The movie portrays various incidents that take place during the Big Year event, while the trio compete with each other and many other birders to achieve the world record of sighting the highest number of birds. Brad and Stu become friends and help each other in the competition, and Brad is attracted to a fellow birder, Ellie. Meanwhile, the highly competitive Bostick resorts to dirty tricks to boost his own count while undermining the others.


title: The Big Year

text: As the year draws to a close, Stu is happily retired and enjoying his newborn grandson; Brad develops a relationship with Ellie; and Bostick is alone, as his wife has left him. Stu and Brad, now close friends, congratulate each other on "a very big year", after each sighting 700+ bird species that year. When the Big Year results are published, Bostick won the competition with 755, a new record; Brad came in second; Stu was fourth. Brad opines that "he (Bostick) got more birds, but we got more everything," as he looks at Ellie, who has come for a weekend visit. Stu smiles, looking at his wife.


title: The Big Year

text: The film ends with Brad and Ellie birding together on a rocky coastline, while Brad confesses that birding is no longer the biggest part of his life. Stu is hiking with his toddler grandson (already enamored by birds) in the Rockies. Bostick is on a birding adventure in China, alone and gazing wistfully at a happy couple walking with their newborn child.


title: The Big Year

text: Principal photography was done from May 3 to July 30, 2010 in Vancouver. Jack Black's fall on Attu Island was unscripted.


title: The Big Year

text: The film received mixed reviews from critics. "The Hollywood Reporter" described it as a "genial, amusing and somewhat unfathomable" film; the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette" called it a "gentle, light-hearted comedy" about "people trying to be the best, following their dreams and enjoying the wonder of birds". It holds rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews, with an average rating of . The consensus reads: "Though made with care and affection for its characters, "The Big Year" plods along, rarely reaching any comedic heights." CinemaScore polls reported that the average grade moviegoers gave the film was a "B−" on an A+ to F scale.


title: The Big Year

text: The film was a box office failure, despite the established stars like Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson as the leads. Based on a budget of $41 million, it took in just $7.4 million in ticket sales worldwide according to Box Office Mojo.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond (; born 31 December 1954) is a Scottish politician and economist who served as First Minister of Scotland from 2007 to 2014. A prominent figure on the Scottish nationalist movement, he has served as leader of the Alba Party since 2021. Salmond was leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), on two occasions, from 1990 to 2000 and from 2004 to 2014. He served as the party's depute leader from 1987 to 1990.


title: Alex Salmond

text: A graduate of the University of St Andrews, he worked as an economist in the Scottish Office, and later, the Royal Bank of Scotland. He was elected to the British House of Commons in 1987, serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Banff and Buchan from 1987 to 2010. In 1990, he successfully defeated Margaret Ewing in the SNP leadership contest. Salmond led the party through the first election to the Scottish Parliament in 1999, where the SNP emerged as the second largest party, with Salmond as the Leader of the Opposition. He was elected as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for Banff and Buchan in that year's election. He resigned as leader in 2000 and stood down as an MSP the following year, when he was appointed leader of the SNP's Westminster group. Salmond was re-elected as leader of the SNP in the 2004 leadership contest, after running on a joint ticket with Nicola Sturgeon. She led the SNP at Holyrood until Salmond was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2007 for the Gordon (later Aberdeenshire East). The SNP placed first, ahead of the governing Labour Party, in the 2007 election with Salmond securing a confidence and supply support from the Scottish Greens, resulting in Salmond's appointment as first minister.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Salmond led an SNP minority government in his first term. His government passed landmark legislation including the abolishment of university tuition fees, the scrapping of prescription charges and commitment to renewable energy. Salmond was the first nationalist first minister and in his first term he failed to obtain support for a referendum on Scottish independence due to insufficient support. At the 2011 Scottish Parliament election the SNP won with an overall majority, a feat previously thought almost impossible under the additional member system used in elections for the Scottish Parliament. As of 2021, this is the only election in which a party has won a majority in the Scottish Parliament. Salmond used this mandate to hold a referendum, which led to the signing of the Edinburgh Agreement and the 2014 referendum. The Yes Scotland campaign, which his deputy Nicola Sturgeon led, lost the campaign as a majority of Scots voted against leaving the United Kingdom. As a result, Salmond resigned and was succeeded by Sturgeon.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Returning to Westminster, Salmond was elected MP for Gordon in the 2015 general election. He was the SNP International Affairs and Europe spokesperson from 2015 to 2017. He left the House of Commons at the 2017 general election after losing his seat to the Scottish Conservative Party candidate Colin Clark. In August 2018, Salmond resigned from the party to fight allegations of sexual misconduct which he denied. In January 2019, he was charged with 14 offences, including attempted rape and sexual assault, but was compensated £500,000 by the Scottish Government in August 2019 and later acquitted of all charges after trial in March 2020. In 2021, he criticised Sturgeon for her government's flawed investigations into these allegations which resulted in a political scandal. Salmond later was announced as the leader of a new pro-independence party, the Alba Party. The party failed to gain any seats in the 2021 national and 2022 local elections.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond was born in his parents' home at 101 Preston Road, Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland, on 31 December 1954. He is the second of four children born to Robert Fyfe Findlay Salmond (1921–2017), and Mary Stewart Salmond (née Milne; 1922–2003), both of whom were civil servants. Robert Salmond, who served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, had originally worked as an electrician, and his family had been resident in Linlithgow since the mid-18th century. Salmond's grandmother, Abigail Ireland, married Alexander Salmond, one of six children to Robert Dobie Salmond and Margaret Elms, the daughter of Margaret Duncan and Henry Elms, a native of England.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Salmond's middle names come from his family's tradition of naming their children after the local Church of Scotland minister, in this case Gilbert Elliot Anderson of St Ninian's Craigmailen Parish Church in Linlithgow. He remains a member of the Church of Scotland.


title: Alex Salmond

text: From a young age, Salmond suffered very bad asthma. His parents were loving and caring and although he did not grow up poor, "money was tight" and the importance of education was emphasised in the family. Salmond was a skinny child, often referred to by his father as a "skink", as in Cullen Skink.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Salmond attended the local Linlithgow Academy from 1966 to 1972. He studied at Edinburgh College of Commerce from 1972 to 1973, gaining an HNC in Business Studies, and was then accepted by the University of St Andrews, where he studied Economics and Medieval History. During his time at St Andrews, Salmond lived in Andrew Melville Hall. He was elected as vice-president (education) of the students' representative council in 1977 and was also nominated to join St Andrews Community Council that year. Salmond graduated with a 2:2 Joint Honours MA in Economics and Medieval History in May 1978.


title: Alex Salmond

text: In 1978, he entered the Government Economic Service as an assistant economist in the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland, part of the now defunct Scottish Office. Two years later he joined the staff of the Royal Bank of Scotland, where he worked for seven years, initially as an assistant economist. In 1982 he was appointed oil economist, and from 1984 he worked as a bank economist as well as continuing to hold the position of oil economist. While with the Royal Bank, he wrote and broadcast extensively for both domestic and international outlets. He also contributed regularly to oil and energy conferences. In 1983, Salmond created a "Royal Bank/BBC oil index" that is still used.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Salmond became active in the SNP when he joined the Federation of Student Nationalists at the University of St Andrews in 1973. His conversion is generally credited to his then girlfriend, Debbie Horton, an English student from London, who was secretary of the St Andrews University Labour club. After an argument in December 1973, she told him: "If you feel like that, go and join the bloody SNP". The next day Salmond did. The following day he and a friend attended the sparsely populated AGM of the university branch of the Federation of Student Nationalists. Being the only two fully paid-up members of the SNP at the university, they were duly elected president and treasurer. Although a left-winger at the time he joined, Salmond had considerable doubts as to whether or not the Labour Government would legislate for a devolved Scottish Assembly.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Salmond started his political life as a committed left-winger inside the SNP and was a leading member of the socialist republican organisation within it, the 79 Group. He was, along with other group leaders, suspended from membership of the SNP when the 79 Group was banned within the larger party. In 1981, he married Moira French McGlashan, then a senior civil servant with the Scottish Office.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Following the SNP's National Council narrowly voting to uphold the expulsion, Salmond and the others were allowed back into the party a month later, and in 1985 he was elected as the SNP's Vice Convener for Publicity. In 1987 he stood for Parliament in Banff and Buchan and defeated the incumbent Conservative MP, Albert McQuarrie. Later that year Salmond became Senior Vice Convener (Depute Leader) of the SNP. He was at this time still viewed as being firmly on the left of the party and had become a key ally of Jim Sillars, who joined him in the House of Commons when he won a by-election for the seat of Glasgow Govan in 1988. Salmond served as a member of the House of Commons Energy Select committee from 1987 to 1992.


title: Alex Salmond

text: When Gordon Wilson stood down as SNP leader in 1990, Salmond decided to contest the leadership. His only opponent was Margaret Ewing, whom Sillars decided to support. This caused considerable consternation amongst the SNP left as the two main left leaders were opposing each other in the contest. Salmond went on to win the leadership election by 486 votes to Ewing's 146.


title: Alex Salmond

text: His first test as leader was the general election in 1992, with the SNP having high hopes of making an electoral breakthrough. Whilst considerably increasing its share of the vote, it failed to win a large number of seats. Sillars lost his, causing him to describe the Scottish people as '90-minute patriots'. This comment ended the political friendship between Salmond and Sillars, and Sillars would soon become a vocal critic of Salmond's style of leadership.


title: Alex Salmond

text: The SNP increased its number of MPs from four to six in the 1997 general election, which saw a landslide victory for the Labour Party. After election, Labour legislated for a devolved Scottish parliament in Edinburgh. Although still committed to a fully independent Scotland, Salmond signed the SNP up to supporting the campaign for devolution, and, along with Scottish Labour leader Donald Dewar and Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Jim Wallace, played an active part in securing the victory for devolution in the Scotland referendum of 1997. Many hardline fundamentalists in the SNP objected to committing the party to devolution, as it was short of full political Scottish independence.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Salmond's first spell as leader was characterised by a moderation of his earlier left-wing views and by his firmly placing the SNP into a gradualist, but still pro-independence, strategy. Salmond was one of the few politicians in the UK to oppose the NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999. He was opposed to the conflict because it was not authorised by a United Nations Security Council resolution, which was a controversial subject at the time. Despite this, Salmond was heavily criticised in the media for describing Tony Blair's decision to intervene militarily as an "unpardonable folly".


title: Alex Salmond

text: Several years as party leader earned Salmond an unusually high profile for an SNP politician in the London-based media. In 1998, Salmond won the Spectator Award for Political Strategist of the Year. Following an appearance on the entertainment programme "Call My Bluff", Salmond used one of the 'bluff' cards that are used as props in the show in the run-up to the first elections to the Scottish Parliament. To counter his frustration at having to sit in silence through what he claimed was an inappropriately political speech by Tony Blair at a charity lunch, he held up the bluff card as the Prime Minister began querying Scotland's economic prospects should independence occur. Throughout his time in politics, Salmond has maintained his interest in horse racing, writing a weekly column for "The Scotsman" and appearing a number of times on Channel 4's "The Morning Line". During the election campaign, Salmond was photographed feeding a young supporter a Solero ice cream during an event at Stirling University, creating a photograph that would become iconic.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Salmond was elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999 and was one of its highest-profile members as Leader of the Opposition. He stood down as SNP leader in 2000, facing internal criticism after a series of high-profile fall-outs with party members, and was replaced by his preferred successor John Swinney, who defeated Alex Neil for the post. He resigned from the Scottish Parliament on 14 May 2001 to lead the SNP group in the House of Commons.


title: Alex Salmond

text: During the prolonged parliamentary debates in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq he voiced strong opposition to the UK's participation. In the aftermath of the war, he lent support to the attempt of Adam Price, a Plaid Cymru MP, to impeach Tony Blair over the Iraq issue. Salmond has gone further than many anti-war politicians in claiming that Blair's statements on the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were consciously intended to deceive the public. He has also claimed that Blair had made a pact with George W. Bush "to go to war come what may".


title: Alex Salmond

text: After the June 2004 European Parliament elections, which were perceived as a "disaster" for the SNP, pressure mounted on Swinney to resign as leader. Swinney announced his resignation on 22 June 2004 to become Convener of the Scottish Parliament's European and External Relations Committee.


title: Alex Salmond

text: On 15 July 2004, Salmond said that he would be a candidate in the forthcoming election for the leadership of the SNP. This came as a surprise because he had previously declared that he would definitely not be a leadership candidate. In the postal ballot of all members he went on to receive over 75% of the votes cast, placing him well ahead of his nearest rival Roseanna Cunningham. As he was not an MSP at the time, his depute, Nicola Sturgeon, took over as Leader of the SNP group and the main opposition leader at Holyrood. Although he was re-elected in the 2005 general election, he made clear his intention to return to the Scottish Parliament at the 2007 Scottish parliamentary election in an attempt to win power for the first time.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Salmond led the Scottish National Party through the 2007 election to the 3rd Scottish Parliament. In the election, Salmond stood as a candidate for the Gordon constituency, which had been represented since 1999 by the Liberal Democrat Nora Radcliffe. Salmond won the seat with 41% of the vote, and a majority of 2,062, returning to the Scottish Parliament after six years' absence. In the election the SNP emerged as the largest party, winning 47 seats to Labour's 46.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Having won more seats than any other party in the 2007 Scottish Parliament election, the SNP initially approached the Scottish Liberal Democrats to form a coalition, but they declined to take part in negotiations. This left the SNP without any possibility to form a coalition with an overall majority. Ultimately, the Scottish Green Party agreed to vote in an SNP minority government in return for concessions on climate policy and naming a Green to chair a committee.


title: Alex Salmond

text: On 16 May 2007, with the support of the Greens, Salmond was elected by the Parliament to succeed Jack McConnell as First Minister of Scotland. The following day he received the Royal Warrant from the Queen and was officially sworn into office at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. Under section 45(7) of the Scotland Act 1998 he became Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland at the same time. He was appointed to the British Privy Council four weeks later. Salmond became the first nationalist politician to hold the office of First Minister. He appointed Sturgeon as his Deputy First Minister.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Salmond reduced the size of the Cabinet from nine members to six, and said he would seek to govern on a "policy by policy" basis. In order to concentrate on his new role as First Minister, Salmond stood down as the SNP group leader at Westminster and was replaced by Angus Robertson. "The Guardian" reported in November 2007 that Salmond believed Scotland would be independent within "the next decade".


title: Alex Salmond

text: Salmond had been First Minister for just over a month when a vehicle rammed the front entrance of the main terminal building at Glasgow Airport on 30 June 2007, the first terrorist attack in Scotland since the Lockerbie bombing incident in December 1988. In a statement addressing the attacks in Glasgow, Salmond stated "terrorist acts are the work of individuals not communities and the arrival of terror on our soil must not result in racist attacks on ethnic minorities whose only crime is to share the same religion and colour as the bombers. It is to be hoped that yesterday's attack is an isolated incident, but the reality is that we will have to deal with more in the future. We must not allow terrorists to stop us from going about our lives as we always have – to do so would be to hand a victory to the men of terror."


title: Alex Salmond

text: Salmond issued a statement regarding the attacks in Edinburgh, calling for "the need for vigilance and unity against the forces of terror and rightly praised the work of the emergency services". Salmond called a meeting of the Scottish Government security advisers in St Andrew's House in Edinburgh, followed by a request from the Prime Minister Gordon Brown for Salmond, the Cabinet Secretary for Justice Kenny MacAskill and the Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini to attend an emergency COBRA meeting. By the evening of 30 June, Salmond had attended an online conference discussion with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown and his governmental cabinet.


title: Alex Salmond

text: A white paper for an independence referendum, setting out four possible options ranging from no change to full independence, was published by the Scottish Government on 30 November 2009. A draft bill for public consultation was published on 25 February 2010, setting out a two-question yes/no referendum, proposing further devolution or full independence. The SNP failed to obtain support from other parties and withdrew the draft bill.


title: Alex Salmond

text: A newspaper investigation in 2009 revealed that Salmond had claimed as expenses from the UK parliament "up to £400 per month in food without producing receipts, even after becoming First Minister and spending little time at Westminster". In the same year, he stated that he would repay more than £700 that he had received in moving expenses when he left a London flat in 2007.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Salmond said it would be "unacceptable" for the SNP to be excluded from the 2010 UK election televised debate and sought "guarantees of inclusion from the broadcasters, given their inescapable duty to ensure fairness and impartiality in election-related coverage in Scotland" in the build up to the 2010 UK general election. The party used the Freedom of Information Act to see whether the BBC could have broken its own rules. Salmond said it was unacceptable to Scotland as well as to the SNP for the broadcasters to exclude the party that formed the Scottish Government and was leading in Westminster election polls. He emphasised that he was not trying to stop any debates from being broadcast. After having failed to change the BBC's decision to not include the SNP in the final British debate, in line with the decision by ITV and Sky News, the SNP mounted a legal challenge to the BBC at the Court of Session in Edinburgh. Despite earlier reassurances by the SNP that it was not trying to stop the broadcast, it sought an 'interim interdict' to prevent the debate being broadcast without the participation of the SNP. The Court of Session dismissed the SNP's complaint, and refused to ban the BBC from broadcasting the third debate in Scotland, on the grounds that the SNP had left the bringing of the case "far too late", had not contested the broadcasting of the first two debates by ITV and Sky Television, and that the third debate would in any case be broadcast by Sky on satellite across Britain, which a Scottish court had no power to block. The judge ordered the SNP to pay the BBC's legal expenses. The SNP's political opponents described the SNP's contesting of the case as a "stunt".


title: Alex Salmond

text: There were Scottish debates dealing with specifically devolved issues which Salmond had accepted the invitation to attend along the other parties within the Scottish Parliament on Sky TV. Salmond declined to attend those held on the BBC and ITV, and Angus Robertson agreed to take his place in the other debates.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Salmond in his 2010 New Year message highlighted the importance of sustainable development and renewable energy in Scotland and the required increase in powers of the Scottish Parliament needed to help harness Scotland's green energy potential and therefore take full advantage of the "renewable revolution".


title: Alex Salmond

text: Earlier, in December 2009, he campaigned for climate change legislation at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to promote Scotland's role in tackling and mitigating climate change. This included signing a Partnership Agreement with the Maldives, one of the most exposed countries to the consequences of rising sea levels.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Although energy is mostly a matter reserved to Westminster, administrative devolution of Sections 36 & 37 of the Electricity Act 1989 coupled with fully devolved planning powers enabled the Scottish Government to establish Scotland as a leader in renewable energy developments.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Before the 2011 Scottish election, the SNP again pledged to hold an independence referendum if it won another term. The Westminster Labour government had initially designed the additional member system to make it impossible for one party to win an outright majority, but the SNP won enough seats from the other parties to take 69 seats, a majority of four. At this election, Salmond was re-elected for Aberdeenshire East, essentially a reconfigured version of Gordon.


title: Alex Salmond

text: The SNP's overall majority assured Salmond of another term as First Minister, and he was re-elected unopposed on 18 May 2011. It also gave Salmond the ability to call a referendum on Scottish independence. On 10 January 2012, the Scottish Government announced that they intended to hold the referendum in late 2014.


title: Alex Salmond

text: An agreement was signed on 15 October 2012 by David Cameron and Salmond which provided a legal framework for the referendum to be held, and on 21 March 2013 the SNP government announced that the referendum would be held on 18 September 2014. "Scotland's Future", a white paper setting out the Scottish Government's vision for an independent Scotland, was published on 26 November 2013.


title: Alex Salmond

text: In December 2011, Salmond spent £260 on a pair of trews that he wore to a ball in China. He refunded the taxpayer more than a year later, after a newspaper had submitted a freedom of information request. The sequence in which these events occurred was acknowledged by the Scottish Government after 7 months, during which they initially maintained that they had no record of when Salmond had repaid the money. In September 2012 he stayed with his wife at a hotel in Chicago while attending a golf tournament; the £3,000 for four nights was paid for by the taxpayer and supported a VisitScotland delegation that spent £468,580 on the trip as part of preparations for hosting the same tournament two years later. Salmond responded to a freedom of information request for information on his spending six months after receiving it, and referred to it as "ridiculous frippery".


title: Alex Salmond

text: In 2012, Salmond indicated in a television interview that he had sought the advice of his law officers on whether an independent Scotland would be part of the European Union. The following year, it was revealed that the Scottish Government had spent almost £20,000 to prevent the disclosure of the content of the alleged legal advice, even though no such advice existed.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Salmond was an early supporter of US President Donald Trump's controversial plans for a Trump International golf course in Aberdeenshire. After the plans were rejected by Aberdeenshire council Salmond personally met with Trump Organisation executives in Aberdeen. The next day the decision was made to overrule the council's rejection. The relationship turned fractious when in 2015, the UK Supreme Court rejected Trump's bid to stop an offshore wind farm being built close to one of his two golf resorts in Scotland. Trump has twice lost bids in the Scottish courts to halt the development, leading Salmond to describe him as a "three times loser", to which Trump called Salmond a "totally irrelevant has-been". Salmond has also said that Trump's impact in Scotland – in particular Turnberry, the Ayrshire golf resort he bought in 2014 – has had a "damaging impact" on the Scottish economy. These comments came days after the chief executive of the Professional Golfer's Association said Trump's comments on the presidential campaign trail were "not a positive thing for golf".


title: Alex Salmond

text: In January 2016, Salmond, prompted by broadcasting colleague Iain Dale, called Trump a "chicken" for refusing to appear on his LBC talk show, which had then been recently launched. Of Trump, he said: "The Donald tries to give this impression that he's totally off the cuff; in fact his media operation controls him and protects him from tough interviews, and when he's had tough interviews he hasn't liked it, that's been pretty obvious".


title: Alex Salmond

text: On 19 September 2014, following the results of the independence referendum which confirmed a majority of the Scottish people had voted against independence, Salmond announced that he would be resigning as First Minister in November 2014. On 15 October, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was the only candidate to stand for the leadership, and formally succeeded Salmond as SNP leader following the party's national conference in Perth on 14 November. Salmond submitted his resignation as First Minister to the Scottish Parliament and to the Queen on 18 November, and the formal selection of Sturgeon as his successor by the Scottish Parliament took place the following day.


title: Alex Salmond

text: On 7 December 2014, Salmond announced that he would stand as the SNP candidate for the Westminster constituency of Gordon in the 2015 May election. He indicated that he did not intend to replace Angus Robertson, MP for Moray, as the SNP leader in the House of Commons. Nicola Sturgeon, his successor as SNP leader and First Minister, repeatedly reminded voters at the March 2015 SNP conference that she, not he, was party leader after he gave interviews about his possible role in a hung parliament. After he declared his candidacy, he was described as a "bogeyman" (both by Lesley Riddoch and by himself), and was reportedly "demonised" by "Conservative propaganda" portraying Labour Party leader Ed Miliband "compliantly dancing to Salmond the piper's tune" after the election.


title: Alex Salmond

text: During the election campaign, Salmond recorded in his diary: "The Tory candidate, Colin Clark, cuts an impressive figure but his politics are far too dry for this area. If the constituency were composed entirely of michty fairmers then he might be the ideal candidate. But it isn't and he is not."


title: Alex Salmond

text: Salmond gained the seat of Gordon with 47.7% of the vote replacing the Liberal Democrat's Malcolm Bruce as the constituency's Westminster MP


title: Alex Salmond

text: . On 13 May 2015, Salmond was appointed as the SNP's foreign affairs spokesman in the House of Commons. He tweeted the party would advocate a "pro Europe", "pro developing world" and "against military adventurism" stance.


title: Alex Salmond

text: Following his return to the Commons he attracted media attention after telling Business Minister Anna Soubry during a debate, “Behave yourself, woman." Soubry said Salmond's attitude belonged, “firmly in the 19th century”. However, his then party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, defended the remarks and said, "It was in a boisterous House of Commons debate. The fundamental question, ‘does that language indicate that Alex Salmond is sexist?’ Absolutely not, there's no man I know who is less sexist.”


title: Alex Salmond

text: In the 2017 British general election, Salmond's seat was widely watched as a potential Tory gain amid a nationwide backlash to Nicola Sturgeon's decision to call for a second independence referendum. The Scottish Conservatives had taken the most votes in the area at the 2017 local council elections, prompting party leader Ruth Davidson to say on a visit to Inverurie that, "We won the local government election in Gordon this week, beating the SNP into second place. It means that in this seat, as in many others, it is a two-horse race between us and the nationalists." In response to Davidson's comments, Salmond riposted, “It's just arrogance, for Ruth Davidson to continue the line of ‘we're going to take this seat, and we're going to take that seat’. Once it doesn't happen, it's very bad news for Ruth Davidson's credibility.”


title: Alex Salmond

text: On election night Salmond lost his seat as member for Gordon to Colin Clark of the Conservatives, receiving 19,254 votes to the Conservatives' 21,861. This represented a swing of 20.4% away from Salmond, larger than the 14.4% swing to him from the Liberal Democrats which saw him win the seat in the 2015 election. It also marked first time since the 1987 general election that Salmond was not in an elected position in either the British or Scottish parliament.


title: Alex Salmond

text: On 9 November 2017, the RT channel (formerly known as Russia Today) announced he would host a show called "The Alex Salmond Show" on the network. Salmond's successor as Scotland's first minister and SNP leader, Nicola Sturgeon, said she would have advised against his decision to broadcast for the channel. Salmond was criticised by Scottish politicians from the other parties for a perceived lack of judgement. The first show was broadcast on 16 November 2017; the main interviewee was Carles Puigdemont, the former president of Catalonia.


title: Alex Salmond

text: In February 2022, Salmond announced that his show on RT has been suspended following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine


title: Alex Salmond

text: In August 2018, he resigned from the SNP in the face of allegations of sexual misconduct in 2013 while he was First Minister. In a statement he said that he wanted to avoid internal division within the party and intended to apply to rejoin the SNP once he had an opportunity to clear his name.


title: Alex Salmond

text: On 30 August 2018, he launched a crowdfunding appeal to pay for the legal costs of seeking a judicial review into the fairness of the process by which the Scottish Government has handled the allegations. He closed the appeal two days later, on 1 September, after raising £100,000, double the amount he wanted to pay for his legal costs. The government later conceded that its procedures had been flawed and paid more than £500,000 in Salmond's legal expenses. On 8 January 2019, he won his inquiry case against Scottish government, noting, "while I am glad about the victory which has been achieved today, I am sad that it was necessary to take this action." The Scottish government admitted it breached its own guidelines by appointing an investigating officer who had "prior involvement" in the case. Salmond also asked permanent secretary to the Scottish Government, Leslie Evans, to consider her position. Evans stated that the complaints the government had received in January 2018 had not been withdrawn, so the option of re-investigating them remained on the table, once the police probe into the allegations had run its course.


title: Alex Salmond

text: On 24 January 2019, Police Scotland arrested Salmond, and he was charged with 14 offences, including two counts of attempted rape, nine of sexual assault, two of indecent assault, and one of breach of the peace. He appeared in court on 21 November and entered a plea of "not guilty". The trial started on 9 March 2020; his defence was led by Gordon Jackson, and the prosecution was led by Alex Prentice.


title: Alex Salmond

text: On 23 March 2020, Salmond was cleared of all charges. A jury found him not guilty of 12 charges, one charge was dropped by prosecutors earlier in the trial while one charge was found not proven.