As for my madness, I would refer you to my FAQ.

Not that I'm against the hugs, of course.

I can't imagine anyone who isn't an employee of Quebecor using Canoe.ca regularly, much less as their homepage.

But for those people who go there looking for stuff, why not make a simple portal, with links to the various sections? Keep the top news headlines there (by the way, very little on that page is actually news), and then link to the rest. Let people click once quickly through two simple pages instead of having to scan through one massive one.

It doesn't look too bad to me, but I don't use Canoe.ca to "find" content... I use Google. The new interface is more pleasant for leisurely browsing. And, honestly, most users are probably looking for sports anyway, so it makes sense to direct them there more than once.

WHOA, POWER SURGE! YOU ROCK, ONTARIO! KEEP THAT A/C CRANKED TO THE MAX!

What was I saying, again? Oh. Right. The pages are weirdly long, I agree with you on that.

I think the unanswered question is: what kind of person routinely reads Canoe.ca, and how does this redesign affect their user experience? The reason CBC and G&M redesigns drew so much attention is because web-literate consumers make up the bulk of those audiences, and they were ready to throw in their two cents every time font sizes went up a lousy pixel. Canoe always struck me as watered-down (excepting sports coverage; only tabloids can pull that off well...), and hence appealing to a more basic reader, someone less concerned about aesthetics and more concerned with consistency.