Advertisement

News

Interview: Rick Mercer

Rick Mercer has carved a comic career out of Canadiana. By now he’s as much a part of the Canadian consciousness as his subject matter.

With The Rick Mercer Report entering a new season, Mercer sat down with NOW in a cavernous CBC studio to chat about the prospect of covering a fourth election in seven seasons, dropping Rick Hansen 160 feet, why politicians still agree to come on his show, and why it’s important not to stay in the closet – even if you’re a Conservative cabinet minister.

Season seven of The Rick Mercer Report premieres Tuesday, September 29th at 8 pm.

Elections must be good for business.

I’m the guy who wants the election, but for all the wrong reasons, of course. What’s good for me and what’s good for the country are two completely different things. Elections are like my Super Bowl, so I enjoy them as a spectator sport. But don’t worry – one’s coming, and we won’t have to wait long.

Are you feeling voter apathy?

Not personally. I get upset at the voting numbers. I’ve voted at every opportunity I’ve had to vote. And for most people an election involves 20 minutes. That’s all it takes, and it’s not asking much if a country needs to make a decision about who should be running things.

Politicians seem to gravitate toward you instead of away from you. Why do you think that is?

I’m really good at talking about people behind their backs. But there’s a certain Canadiana that kicks in when I have them face to face. The nature of the show is that I don’t think any politicians have regretted coming on the show.

A lot of it has to do with viewers, not me. You’d be getting close to 2 million viewers, and there’s really no other place that can give you that many eyeballs. But the fact is, last year I only had a handful of politicians on the show. I’m much more likely to have an oyster fisherman or guys who do demolition derbies.

And it’s getting harder to hang out with politicians, because – with the Conservatives, for example – most of them aren’t allowed to appear on television or do media anyway.

I wouldn’t wish the life of a Conservative backbencher on anyone, because if you’re a taxicab driver in this country, at least you’re allowed to express an opinion.

Do you get a lot of people coming up to you saying, “You’re a lefty – you should be more neutral”?

Yeah, but I get the opposite as well. The Hill Times, which is like the high school newspaper for Parliament Hill, did stories about “Mercer showing his true colours” because I was so critical of Chrétien. Conservatives would then say to me, “You should get involved with the Conservative party – maybe you’ll want to run someday.”

Then Paul Martin, same thing. Now that the Conservatives are in, I get “He’s a lefty, he hates Conservatives.” My job is to be critical of whoever lives at 24 Sussex Drive quite frankly. A good week for me is when my Liberal friends say I’m too Tory, my Tory friends say I’m too Liberal, and my NDP friends say I’m ignoring them.

Do you actually keep a tally of how often you’re approached to run for office?

It’s hardly flattering. It’s getting to the point now where if you accept a yard sign, someone might ask you to run. When people think about those things [running for office], they should already have done a number of things in their life – like jobs and life experience.

What bothers me is the trend in politics with people like Pierre Poilievre, who’s the prime minister’s parliamentary secretary. A lot of people have him pegged as the future leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and there’s absolutely no evidence the man has ever had a job. He’s an MP, and there’s just no evidence. If there is evidence, maybe he’d like to bring it forward.

Were you ever concerned about people’s opinions on your being gay?

When I was younger I always thought, “I’m never going to say, ‘I’m not gay’.” That was never on the table, but I certainly didn’t talk about my sexuality very much. I was worried, for a long time, that there would be a certain perception – especially as a political commentator.

Like, “Oh, he’s gay. He’s probably a vegetarian. And probably votes NDP.” I could just see the whole thing in terms of where people thought my politics were.

It wasn’t until The Mercer Report that it started being referred to. People are always surprised that I’m gay. Sometimes people come up to me and say, “I didn’t know you were gay!” I’ll say “Yup. Thanks for watching! Tuesdays at 8 pm.” Other than a few crazy emails, I’ve never had any problems.

It’s a lot easier being a gay person on television than a gay person in junior high.

What do you think of politicians who don’t come out?

There’s no gay person who doesn’t have an opinion on that. I wish more gay people would come out. I think it’s really important for gay politicians to come out.

Again, it’s not going to have any effect on my life, but to me it always goes back to the gay kids and teens. At that point in their life, they’re really vulnerable.

I couldn’t give two shits what the prime minister thinks about my personal life, or what the prime minister thinks about my right to marriage. It makes no difference to me whatsoever. I’m a grown man. But during the same-sex marriage debate, the prime minister of Canada is making all sorts of strange comments about gay people. I always thought, “I can’t imagine if this had happened when I was 15.”

If there’s a gay politician who could be visible as a gay politician, you know, that would mean a lot to those people.

I hosted an event recently for the Pink Triangle program, which is a very small high school for kids who’ve dropped out of conventional schools due to bullying because of their sexuality.

A bunch of cops came to the event as part of an organization of gay police officers. So they sat there, a couple of RCMP officers, a couple of OPP officers, couple of soldiers, a fireman – all in uniform.

For those 16-year-olds, vulnerable and having a hard time with their sexuality, it means a whole lot for them to look over and say, “What? There are gay RCMP officers?”

And it would mean a lot for them to know there are gay cabinet ministers. But that’s up to the gay cabinet minister . . . or prime minister.

Your show takes you across the country. Are you basically nomadic?

Six months of the year I am. I have a section of my house that has multiple suitcases. As the season progresses, I have “Arctic” for when I’m up north, “Rural Canada” for 15 below, and plenty of duffel bags.

You’ve probably memorized Canadian time zones by now.

Yeah, but I don’t have one of those big stupid watches with multiple times.

What’s something people can expect to see this season?

I’m really excited because I went out and met Rick Hansen. It’s the 25th anniversary of the Man In Motion tour, and he’s always been an inspiration to me. We were talking about going fishing but had to do something else because I went fishing with Bob Rae and we ended up getting naked – so, no more fishing trips.

So Rick Hansen and I went bungee jumping 160 feet off a bridge into a gorge with a raging river, with a bungee cord strapped to his wheelchair. The last time he flew any distance at all was when he was 14 and thrown out of the back of the pickup truck that put him in the wheelchair. That’s some funny television.[rssbreak]

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Recently Posted