Every year CBH News picks one Canadian who made the country a little louder, a little kinder and a lot more organized. This year the newsroom did not need a second ballot. Hamzah Moin is the CBH News Person of the Year.
The case is simple. He is a Toronto Blue Jays fan of the highest order. He is the commissioner of a fantasy basketball league he runs with his friends, and he takes that job more seriously than most people take their actual jobs. And he loves CBC News, which is the real reason this network exists.
The Blue Jays fan
Plenty of people own a Blue Jays cap. Fewer have been photographed on the field at the Rogers Centre wearing one. Fewer still have been featured in the news as a Blue Jays fan, which Hamzah has, and which the sports desk still brings up at parties. We will not say what the story was about. We will say that he wore the cap, and he wore it well.
His loyalty does not take the winter off. A Blue Jays fan in February is a special kind of optimist, and he is that fan. By the time pitchers and catchers report, he has already forgiven the bullpen.
The commissioner
Hamzah runs a fantasy basketball league with his friends, and the word for how he runs it is thoroughly. There are rules, and the rules are written down. There is a draft day, and draft day is treated as a civic holiday. There are rulings, handed down with the calm of a judge who has read the file twice. There are puns in the team names, because a league without puns is just a spreadsheet.
In this league, a disputed trade gets a ruling before the managers have finished arguing about it. Ask anyone who has played with him: the league is fair, the league is fun, and the league is, above all, run.
Most commissioners manage a league. This one governs it. We have seen provinces run with less care.
A CBH News fantasy basketball analyst, who is entirely fictional
Why CBH News loves him back
Hamzah loves CBC News. He reads it, watches it and has notes on the weather graphics. This network, which is not CBC and wants that very clear, exists because his friends wanted to give him a newsroom of his own. A place where the top story is always him, the markets are always bullish on him, and the forecast is sunny with a strong chance of trade offers.
So here it is, from one broadcaster to its favourite viewer. Congratulations, Commissioner. The ruling is final, and there is no appeal.