Jimmy MacDonald's Canada

[2] The character of Jimmy MacDonald was created as a combination of several real-life Canadian television figures of the 1960s, including Norman DePoe, Larry Henderson and J. Frank Willis.

MacDonald provides commentary on trends in Canadian society from a reactionary viewpoint, opposing such "fads" as physical fitness, rock music and fashion, from the point of view of an ultra-conservative with Victorian sensibilities.

Running jokes related to this segment include Margison's expressions of veiled contempt towards her husband, and MacDonald's own attraction to her (at one point he is caught on camera asking for her phone number).

MacDonald regularly promotes the show's (fictional) sponsor, "Provincial Brand" cigarettes, a parody of commercial advertisements common on television in the 1960s.

Several episodes include MacDonald conducting interviews with people in archival footage, most notably iconic broadcaster Foster Hewitt.

MacDonald's "collapse" is given a slow buildup throughout the series as the ultra-conservative, traditionalist host becomes increasingly more frustrated with the modern innovations he's forced to cover (this is often played to comic effect, such as when he rails against the advent of the zamboni during one of his "Outrage of the Week" segments), but accelerates when he loses his temper on the penultimate episode dealing with the hippie movement—he is particularly frustrated with (vintage) news footage of a group of young people draping themselves over the statue of Queen Victoria in Queen's Park in Toronto.