News Release

Home audience submits more than 700,000 votes for Canada's most passionate hockey community

TORONTO, June 11, 2006 “ The results are in! The Canadian public has voted for the champion of CBC Television™s Kraft Hockeyville 2006 competition. Backed by more than 700,000 online, text and phone votes from the home audience, Salmon River™s "Salmon River Ice Men" found out they had been voted as Canada™s most passionate hockey community earlier tonight on the Kraft Hockeyville season finale. Salmon River Ice Men took home the grand prize”a National Hockey League exhibition game, $10,000 from CCM/Reebok and a $50,000 gift card from The Home Depot for upgrades to their local arena.

Salmon River Ice Men edged out more than 450 entries and proved that they deserved to be crowned Hockeyville by demonstrating how their community best fulfilled the Kraft Hockeyville equation: Community Spirit + Hockey = Hockeyville. Throughout the competition, Salmon River Ice Men displayed true spirit and energy as they defended their right to the title through a series of community-produced video submissions and face-to-face challenges with other finalists and celebrity judges, Olympic medallists Catriona Le May Doan and Hayley Wickenheiser, former NHL players Mike Bossy and Glenn Anderson and actor Gabriel Hogan.

"Each of the communities that participated should be proud of what they have accomplished during the Kraft Hockeyville 2006 competition. They all definitely proved that they have tremendous community spirit and passion for hockey," said Dino Bianco, President, Kraft Canada. "Congratulations to Salmon River on winning the title, and to all the more than 450 communities across the country who applied to be Kraft Hockeyville 2006."

Anchored from the Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena in Hamilton, Ont., the final episode of Kraft Hockeyville was a celebration of community spirit and hockey. Throughout the evening, audience members and Kraft Hockeyville finalists were visited by Canadian NHL players and Hamilton™s own Steve Smith of CBC™s The Red Green Show, who dropped by to honour the determination and dedication of the finalist communities. Rob Baker of The Tragically Hip also made a special guest appearance and performed with Craig Northey and the Hounds of Hockeyvilles, Kraft Hockeyville™s house band, and Canadian musical group Shaye debuted the Hockeyville anthem. The season concluded with the announcement that Salmon River had been voted as the champion and was awarded the Kraft Hockeyville 2006 Cup.

Kraft Hockeyville 2006 was a seven-part national series hosted by Canadian actor and hockey enthusiast Cameron Bancroft. Each week, Bancroft, along with his regional co-hosts and special guests, showcased the advancing communities from across Canada. Bancroft™s regional co-hosts included actor Marc Hickox (Atlantic region co-host); actor Mark Day (Northern region co-host); radio personality Colleen Rusholme (Central region co-host); comic actor Michaela Washburn (Western region co-host); and comedian Derek Thompson (Pacific co-host).

For more information on CBC™s Kraft Hockeyville, visit www.cbc.ca/hockeyville.

Supporting photography available at www.cbc.ca/imagegallery

About Kraft Canada
Kraft Canada Inc., one of Canada™s leading food and beverage companies, recognizes the importance of healthy living and provides consumers with a wide range of nutritional choices, and useful healthy eating and physical activity information. Further information on Kraft's broad-based health and wellness initiatives can be found on www.kraftcanada.com.