Canada Now

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Canada Now (more formally CBC News: Canada Now) is the early-evening national news program aired on CBC Television, the main English television network of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, between 2000 and 2007. It is now the name of CBUT's local newscast.

The show was created to replace the regular supper-hour newscasts on the CBC's owned-and-operated local television stations in 2000, as a result of cuts to the CBC's budget. While initially thought to be a national newscast only (alongside cutback local newscasts maintaining their original names), it was later revealed that it would cover both local and national news. Hence it was an hour-long newscast divided into two thirty-minute sub-programs. One was national in scope, anchored by Ian Hanomansing at the network's Vancouver studio; the other was regional, varying from station to station, anchored by the stations' local anchors, just like the previous local newscasts.

However, as of February 16, 2007, Canada Now has been cancelled. The local newscasts are now branded CBC News at Six, except for the hour-long CBC News: Here & Now in Newfoundland and Labrador, which returned in November 2005, CBC Compass, which made its return on February 19, 2007, and Canada Now in British Columbia.

The national version of Canada Now was also broadcast on CBC Newsworld. It was paired with a half-hour current affairs program, which shared the Canada Now title, hosted by Kathleen Petty in Calgary, but that half was cancelled after Petty left to go to CBC Ottawa. CBC North did not broadcast the national portion; due to the unique circumstances of the Canadian territories, the service has its own separate newscast, CBC News Northbeat. Some of the regional portions were also seen on the CBC's digital specialty channel Country Canada. Most of CBC's privately owned affiliates did not broadcast Canada Now, airing only their own local newscasts.

On November 30, 2006, CBC Television announced that they would revert to the pre-2000 early-evening news model effective February 19, 2007: Canada Now was cancelled, while local newscasts nationwide will once again use an hour-long format. [1]

Canada Now's last CBC broadcast was Friday February 16, 2007.