Canadian prankster 'duped' Ecclestone
It has emerged that a prank telephone call may have hurried Formula One Management chief Bernie Ecclestone into confirming that the 2004 Canadian GP had been cancelled [Aug 15] - less than a week after denying knowledge of any problem. Ecclestone received a call purporting to be from Canadian PM Jean Chretien, and told him the race was off. In fact, it was a prank from a disc jockey on French-speaking radio station CKOI in Montreal - and Ecclestone's remarks were broadcast live
The conversation centred on Canada's new total tobacco advertising ban, coming into force on October 1, 2003. Ecclestone told 'Chetrien': "We had a beautiful relationship [with Canada] over the years, and I was hoping that we were going to continue with our [tobacco] exemption. When I was informed it had stopped, that put us in a very difficult position, obviously. We're not trying to blackmail you, believe me. We have enough people who want to race there, it's not that. We love Canada, we love Montreal. Everybody's happy. [But] we always try to honour whatever we agree to."
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