On this day in 2017, Gord Downie died at the age of 53. The frontman for the iconic Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip left an undeniable mark on the country’s cultural landscape and its charts. In the years since, his legacy has been dissected and cemented, with tributes coming in from Drake to Justin Trudeau. He was a champion of Indigenous reconciliation, a rock and roll poet, one of the continent’s best performers. He was a lot of things at once.
For Gord Downie’s daughter Willo Downie, it’s been difficult to grapple with the public perception of her father — who he was to the country and who he was…
