Well, not really Wes, the guy who ran the combined insurance agency and liquor store in Dog River, but his real-life alter-ego, Mike O’Brien. He’s died of an aggressive cancer.
I knew him slightly back when he was a reporter on the local paper, the Leader-Post. He interviewed me a few times on court cases I ran. Always fair and reasonable in his reporting. One of his best articles was “Docket Court on Christmas Eve”, a story about the people who found themselves in docket court on criminal charges on December 24. Always treated the topics of his articles humanely.
He moved on from Regina to Winnipeg to get his dream job, writing comedy for CBC Radio. He also got married, and they had a little boy. Then cancer came.
Mike responded with a mix of humour and realism, starting a blog called The Big Diseasy.
A week ago, the National Post ran an article on him by Jana Pruden, one of his fomer colleagues at the Leader-Post: ‘Tumour humour and chemo emo’: Why a Canadian actor with terminal cancer plans to die laughing, which opened with this little story:
Sadly, Mike didn’t get the silver lining; died this past weekend, with at least one dream unfulfilled:
Mike O’Brien, comedian and Corner Gas regular, dies of cancer
Former CBC comedy writer Mike O’Brien, 51, dies of cancer
RIP, Mike. You were one of the good ones.