Drake Paid Tribute To Canadian Rock Legend Gord Downie: ‘You Will Be Forever Treasured By This Country’

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The tributes to The Tragically Hip’s frontman Gord Downie, who died yesterday after a long battle with cancer, continue pouring in. The Hip were a Canadian institution, and so many of that country’s biggest names and leading lights have chimed in to pay their respects. That includes Canada’s most prominent celebrity of the moment, Drake, who took to Instagram late last night and shared a picture of himself and Downie at a Raptors game earlier this year.

“Rest In Peace legend,” he wrote. “So glad we got to meet and have this conversation. You will be forever treasured by this country and missed by the world.”

The chorus of Canadian luminaries sharing their sympathies over Downie’s death goes really helps put in perspective the massive impact his life and music left on his home country. Neil Young took to Facebook and wrote, “You have always been a true Canadian artist. My condolences to your whole family and all of Canada. What a great gift of music you have left here for us all.”

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Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who attended the Tragically Hip’s final concert in 2016, stepped out yesterday and delivered a tear-filled tribute of his own. “We lost one of the very best of us this morning,” he said. “Gord was my friend, but Gord was everyone’s friend, it’s who we were. Our buddy Gord, who loved this country with everything he had.”