Julie Van Dusen – meeting the Kyoto challenge through the recycling of stories! A reader writes;
Almost a year to the day, the same SOW funded daycare group Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada (that you exposed a year ago) is slamming the Conservatives.
You can catch it on last night’s the National. (cue to 17:00)
The Conservative government has not produced any new child-care spaces despite promising before the election a year ago to create 25,000 spots within 12 months, critics say.
In a report to be released Thursday, the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada calls on the government to abandon its plan, which it describes as piecemeal. The non-profit group demands the government come up with a more comprehensive strategy. [blah blah blah].
“Non-profit group”. Now, there’s a euphanism.
On Jan.7 last year that I wrote about whose interests the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada represents. Their own. I’m still waiting for a reply to my email asking for the “financial statements available on request”.
Speaking of government funded political activists – after seeing the Rick Mercer Report for the first (and only) time this week, I found myself asking why doesn’t this half hour of shilling for the Liberals fall under political contribution guidelines? I’d been led to believe he did comedy.
I don’t watch mercer,I don’t think he’s funny, never did It’s just a waste of airtime….or TAX MONEY but who cares it’s the CBC and the CBC keeps Canada united…
According to Rick Mercer the Accountability Act is ‘Damaging Canada’.
No, Rick the LIEberal party ‘damaged Canada’ by simple frauds and rampant waste and theft of taxpayers moneys.
Guess he must have been asleep during the entire Gomery Commission.
Too bad this week’s show is the first you caught, Kate. Normally he slags everyone pretty equally – this week was the first time I’ve seen him shoot almost entirely in one direction.
Besides which, I’ve got a soft spot for an entertainer who supports the Canadian Forces so vocally and often, to the point of spending Christmas in the field with them in Kandahar.
He’d normally much, much funnier.
The fact that the Liberal government gave taxpayers’ money to organizations and lobby groups that essentially worked PR for the Liberal party is disgusting. But here is a cold, hard fact: Many Canadians are just too ignorant to even realize this or understand this, and as such, it doesn’t end.
Damian……is Rick Mecer really honest in his support of the troops??? Or is he just putting on a good show…pun not intended.
Boo-hoo. A taxpayer funded advocacy group is “slamming” the government because they haven’t created 25, 000 daycare spaces. Perhaps they should be reminded that the current government hasn’t even been in power for a year, and that these things don’t happen overnight.
We’ll only have to wait until the spring for these groups to die off anyways, what with the dreadful CCP funding ending, and SOW pork-money being redirected. If they want to protest and lobby the government then, fine. But they can do it on their own dime, not on the Taxpayer’s.
I have to agree with Damian, Rick normally does spread the slagging all around, although we shouldn’t kid ourselves and ignore the fact that he’s socially liberal on most issues. But I also hold a soft-spot for any comedian who goes over and spenfds their Christmas entertaining our boys and girls over in Afghanistan. He mostly alright, that guy.
Agree with Damian, Kate…Mercer slags everybody. And he’s done some bits that were helpful to Harper in the past. There was a Mercer Report commercial last year either during or just before the election which showed Mercer dodging hockey pucks until the end of the commercial…when it was shown that Harper was the one firing pucks at him. It showed Harper’s sense of humour in a positive way at a time that he needed it.
Agree that he’s not that funny, but he’s not as partisan as you are making out here.
Van Douchebag and Susan Murray are having a “who’s the angrier crone” contest.
Griff:
You are correct. Mercer does usually spread the manure more evenly.
But this Tuesday he didn’t. The criticism of Harper and the conservatives was relentless from start to finish, at times resorting to pure speculation when Mercer accused Harper of planting “intentional leaks”.
The problem was compounded by Mercer’s playful romp in a park with Dion and his loveable pooch Kyoto. I could have sworn the show was scripted by the liberal party.
Some of Mercer’s video pieces are good; the lame part of the show are his one-liners in the studio. The laughter sounds as if there’s someone with a cattle-prod forcing everyone to laugh.
He can be very partisan and preachy at times during his rants.
mercer is just CBCpravda’s ubercivil servant.
I see in the Herald this morning that Shaw is withholding funding for Canadian Broadcasting as it feels a disproportionate share goes to poor programming from the mother corp. CBC.
lost of olympics, nhl, cfl , confidence and now funding , what is left except “the left”?
We watched in awe last night, Mercer set a new standard by which all slaggers will be judged!
The problem here is that we beleive that he can be funny, provided that he doesn’t get personal. He will probably wonder why CBC ceases to be.
Being an avid world band radio listener, I scroll past CBC radio 1 and 2 as well as CBC’s international short wave broadcasts frequently….yesterday was a sick day for me so I had occasion to enjoy multi-band radio listening all day. Out of curiosity/amusement I began counting the number of references to “global warming”, “kyoto” in CBC’s radio transmission day.
Surprise, surprise, CBC had over 32 references in a 12 hr brodcast day ( at least the 3 RF bands I was monitoring)…the news was littered with kyoto implimentation “news” from the EU and the cheerful banter from various CBC “personalities” provided almost as much global warming kyoto reference as the news.
I could not bring myself to watch CBC TV to do a count on Kyoto messaging but I’m willing to assume this week it is similar in it’s “kyoto” messaging.
It’s obvious the CBC is on a Kyoto sales pitch and are opening up the propaganda gates in semi subliminal messaging this political hobby horse at every opportunity.
It seems telling that this Kyoto crusade coincides with Citroen Dion’s agenda to make Kyoto his political hobby horse. Completely missing from any of the CBC banter and jibbering over Kyoto was any constructive idea about how to meet these rediculous targets without tanking the economy…also missing is any discussion on Kyoto science….it is being sold as a concrete fact and not a theory.
Good ‘ol CBC, never let fact or objectivity get in the way of a zealous leftist crusaade based in secular “faith” in theories.
I was just disappointed,that due to all that snow on the ground in Dion segment,we didn’t get to see him bare-a**ed!
so is the Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada
incorrect? has the current govt created any daycare spaces?
re: rick mercer, he did a very funny bit with harper before christmas. in fact, mercer presented harper in a very positive light.
Some of Rick’s stuff is truly funny.
To wit, the “Knee in your package” spoof of Revenue Canada, on the TD “Hand in your pocket” ad was priceless.
That was probably the best use of taxpayers money since they cut the cheques for the Gomery Commission.
The millions spent within the CCAAC and SOW are not for the benefit of any children or women in need. These are purely and only advocacy groups; the money goes for the staff salaries, benefits, offices, office equipment, travel, conferences etc. Not a penny goes to any child or woman in need.
We, the taxpayer, are funding people to ‘advocate’ that people might be in need. We aren’t spending that money to help those in need. We are spending the money to be told that there ‘might’ be people in need. Period.
Now if that sounds illogical – it is because it IS illogical. If that sounds like an utter waste of taxpayer money – it IS a waste of taxpayer money.
Why not spend that money on those child care spaces rather than funding the middle class ladies in their urban office jobs?
… doubt you fill find this Kyoto tidbit on the CBC.
Kyoto sinks Europe: Billions in costs make it more and more unlikely that the EU can continue to go it alone slashing carbon emissions
Financial Post
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=03445f57-0777-4554-ac7c-ec63cb073223
Mercer is sometimes funny, most of the time a shill for the Liberal way of life. Like the Air Farce, he sometimes tweaks the Natural Ruling party, but when
all is said he is very much a small and large “L” liberal, and he knows where his money comes from.
I saw his routine at the Montreal Comedy Festival last year, and he spent ten minutes slagging the Americans, to roars of laughter from the audience.
If Mercer is so good, let’s see him ply his trade on the open market, sans government funding, on which his career has so far been based, and then we’ll see how he does. I beleive he’s just aanother taxpayer funded mediocrity. Jerry Seinfeld he is NOT.
As for the CCAAC, the link shows excellent examples of how the LPC micro manages our lives.
Trudeau’s famous statement about” getting the Government out of the bedrooms of the nation”, turns out to be merely a cover for his advocacy of the homosexual agenda. While they may have left the bedroom, they intruded into every other room in the house, boardrooms and law courts.
If I remember right, the Martin childcare money to the provinces with agreements, stayed in place until Jan 2007.
Unless I am misinterpreting the govt website:
-The tax credits begin in 2007, for the 2007/08 tax year. Not retroactive to Jan 1/06.
And even if the credit had been retroactive to Jan 06, companies with year ends of Dec/06 have not yet filed their income tax forms.
-Until businesses file their income tax returns (following their year end, during 2007 or in 200 there is absolutely NO WAY for any agency to know what, if any, company took advantage of the credit and created child care spaces.
http://www.fin.gc.ca/budget06/pa…mph/ pahelpe.htm
…..New Child Care Spaces
This budget sets aside $250 million per year beginning in 2007–08 to support the creation of new, real child care spaces.
I have avoided mercer since the Doris Day thing years ago. Not that Day was a great leader or anything, he just deserved better from CBC et al as did the Conservative movement (and each and every taxpayer), in Canada. Hopefully mercer will disappear when the CBC dies, (or vice versa).
CRB
I have to agree with Damian. Rick Mercer slags everyone. He did a good rant about PM Stephen Harper asking China about its human rights violations, where he essentially stuck it to the Liberals and others who said that Harper was wrong. He ended by saying, He did the right thing, or it was the right thing to do….something along those lines. He also said that nothing had been brought up about China’s human rights violations for years. So, he actually makes some good points.
As for Julie Van Deusen, I hope that she will have to claim her hair as an environmental hazard, so that someone will either comb it, cut it, or buy her a good wig.
Mercer has a sense of humour!, I have been waiting 65 years to find any Canuck with one
I’ve had no respect for Mercer since he did those Talking to Americans skits in which he caught unsuspecting folk offguard and tried to make them look like fools because they didn’t have their facts straight about Canada. He even got Bush on one occasion. Who knows how many Americans he had to question before he got the ‘hilarious’ wrong answers he was looking for.
In any case, he just made himself look smug and ignorant and showed that Canada under the Liberals was hardly a blip on the US radar screen.
I agree with Kate. Mercer isn’t funny and he is most often a shill for the Liberals. I have turned him off more than a few times. He may occasionally poke fun at his prescious Liberals but like the Air Farce, the “jokes” are not balanced. They play chiefly to a Liberal audience and they know it. I would have to believe his Christmas in Afganistan with the troops was for self promotion and a ploy to make his ilk look good.
Bah… Kate you need to broaden your televsion viewing.. Rick Mercer slags anyone and everyone. and when he does it’s usually deserved.
everything on the report last night was absolutely deserved by the Conservatives…
the accountability act is a toothless waste of paper, Harper did make the wrong call on the environment, (but the right call on Kyoto itself). The industry groups who have the most to lose TOLD him 2 weeks after he got elected that if he didn’t deal with it as a top issue he was going to get crucified. Harper, (not Ambrose) ignored them, Ambrose to her credit did EXACTLY what the PMO’s office told her to do, she was set up to fail and anyone working on the file,(including Ambrose) knew it.
As for Climate Change, Global warming, Kyoto whatever you want to call it. it IS and issue like it or not… personally I think the way the media and left tending factions are milkin it to support thier own politcal interests is dispicable but like it or not it is an issue.
wether you buy into Kyoto, global warming or whaterver or not the simple fact is the current comsuption of resorces by our society is unsustainable, Renewable energy sorces, Efficiency, conservation, and changing of public attitudes and behaviors is the ONLY solution.
Kyoto is a flawed creation of a few special interests intent on making a buck. and the championing of Kyoto by the environmentalists, liberal party, and MSM community is just more of the usual blind idiocy that we’ve come to expect from both those groups over the decades.
Harpers government needs to learn how to handle the media and get the message out that Energy is the issue not global warming, that we need to think in the long term but still take action now. Personally I don’t think any politician is competant enough to get it right… the best we can hope for is that they listen to the right people.
I am sure the child care story was just coincidence last night (Jan. 10) from our national broadcaster.
It surely would have nothing to do with press releases (Jan. 11)from some child advocacy group called Code Blue and another release from CUPE both denouncing the Harper Government on their inability to create child care space.
I am sure Ms. Van Dusen was acting as an independent journalist just following up on a story which she feels important. I would be shocked, shocked I say, that any reporter at the CBC would act in concert with some decidedly left wing advocacy group to advance an agenda.
they said they needed 7000 child care spaces in Ottawa alone.
seems that would be rectified by loosing 7000 to 14000 civil servants.
and agree Julie Van Dusen looks like she cuts her hair with a combine with the blade set to high.
A few months ago General Rick Hillier promised me a Christmas I would never forget; turns out he is a man of his word.
This year, on Christmas morning, I was in Sperwan Ghar in the Panjwai district of Afghanistan sitting around a single-burner Coleman stove with a dozen Canadian soldiers. Rush was on the stereo and we were watching a pot of Tetley tea bags threaten to boil. Outside it was wet and muddy, but inside the sandbag bunker where these Royal Canadian Dragoons ate and slept it was warm and as comfortable as one could expect under the circumstances. Corporal Frank Farrell was in charge of the pot and there was no top on it this morning – this was not to be rushed.
Gen. Hillier is a very persuasive man. He is also a Newfoundlander. And while he is the chief of the Canadian Forces it has been suggested that he might think he is the chief of all Newfoundlanders. He’ll call you up and suggest to you that on Dec. 25 there is only one place you should be and it’s so special that by agreeing to go there you render your life insurance null and void. You aren’t asked so much as you are voluntold.
This was my third trip to Afghanistan but my first at Christmas. Gen. Hillier was on a personal mission to shake hands with every man and woman wearing a Canadian uniform in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf and I was along for the ride. The way he described it was simple: “It’s Christmas” he said, “and all we are going to do is pop in and say hello to a few folks.” In Canada “popping in to say hello” at Christmas is just a matter of arranging for a designated driver or making sure you have cab fare in your pocket. This was a little more complicated. It started with a nine-hour flight overseas, stopping in Croatia for gas, and then onward to a military base that dare not speak its name or reveal its location. Once there we immediately boarded a Sea King
helicopter for a night flight across the water so we could land on the deck of the HMS Ottawa.
On this leg of the trip there were three other Newfoundlanders – broadcaster Max Keeping, singer songwriter Damhnait Doyle and my old colleague Mary Walsh – and three members of the Conservative caucus – whip Jay Hill, MP Laurie Hawn and the President of the Treasury Board John Baird. I was happy they were issued flak jackets and helmets because I had a sneaking suspicion that the combination of Walsh and the three Tories might make some recent skirmishes with the Taliban insurgency seem tame in comparison. If it came down to a three on one donnybrook my money was on the Princess Warrior.
And so, on the night before Christmas Eve, our little gang of Newfoundlanders along with 50 or so sailors closed the mess on the HMS Ottawa. We laughed until we were stupid. It felt like Christmas.
After sunrise Gen. Hillier addressed the troops on the deck of the ship. This was the first of countless speeches he would give over the next four days. He is funny as hell and inspiring as anyone I have ever seen speak. He makes soldiers laugh and then he makes them cry. He thanks them all in a way that makes everyone grow inches. From a show business perspective he is a tough act to follow, but follow we did. When it came Damhnait’s turn to say a few words she sang a song, and if there is a better way to kick off an adventure than watching Damhnait Doyle and 250 sailors sing O Canada on the deck of a Canadian battle ship as it sails the Gulf I can’t think of it.
After Ottawa it was straight back to the base for a three-hour nap before a 3 a.m. wake-up call for the flight to Kandahar. Once in Kandahar we had the standard briefing that is mandatory for visiting
entertainers and or the head-injured. When the siren goes do what you’re told, when everything seems fine do what you’re told and, when in doubt, do what you’re told.
From there we went “over the wire.” It was Christmas Eve and Gen. Hillier wanted to make it to all the forward operating bases. These bases are all former Taliban strongholds. For the most part they are high points of land that were hard-fought for. Some of the bases are nothing but points of land with soldiers living in tents, trenches and bunkers. This is the front line of a war.
Charlie Company at Patrol Base Wilson was the first group we spoke to. These are the men and women who are working under maximum threat levels in Afghanistan. They are out there on patrol every day, for days at a time, engaging the enemy. They have all lost friends here. They have a bit of the ten-thousand mile stare – which is to be expected – so from the point of view of a guy who stands around and tells jokes for a living this is what you would call a tough crowd. Gen. Hillier was right though, he told me that just showing up was enough and everything else was gravy.
That afternoon we made our way by convoy to Strong Point West, home to Bravo Company. This was still Christmas Eve and we arrived in time to help serve their Christmas meal. Gen. Hillier worked the turkey, senior officers worked the potatoes and vegetables and I pulled up the rear as chief gravy server. I must admit I felt pretty darn important serving the gravy. These guys get a cooked meal about every three to four days. For the most part they eat rations out of a bag where they find themselves. Plus they get shot at. Anything hot with gravy is a very, very big deal. As the man with the gravy ladle I was probably – for the duration of the serving line – the most popular man on Earth.
And so this year for Christmas dinner I sat on the ground in the dust and ate turkey loaf and gravy on a paper plate. Everyone except me had a gun. There was lots of talk of home and like anyone’s Christmas dinner there were lots of pictures. At one point the designated photographers had 10 digital cameras in their hands at a time trying to get the group shots.
Everywhere you go in Afghanistan where there are Canadian soldiers you see Christmas cards and letters supporting the troops. Some of the tents and accommodations are decorated with so many home-made cards from school kids that you would swear you had wandered into an elementary school lunchroom and not a mess hall. It’s amazing to see groups of battle-weary soldiers wrapped in ammunition and guns stopping to read these things with the attention that is usually reserved solely for the parent. I was in a tent with two guys in their early 20s who were poring over a stack of letters and class photos and separating them into piles. I was a little taken aback that these young guys, in the middle of a war zone, would be so moved by support from Grade 4 classes until I realized the deciding factor for the favourites pile was which teacher was hotter.
On Christmas morning, the convoy headed to Sperwan Ghar. The troops here sleep in dugouts with sandbag perimeters. After the speeches and hellos a corporal asked me back to his quarters for a cup of tea. He was, like so many guys here, a Newfoundlander. And so that’s where I spent Christmas morning, watching corporal Frank Farrell stir the teapot while a dozen or so guys hung out and exchanged cards and had a few laughs. The crowd in the bunker wasn’t there just for the tea. They had been waiting a long time for Corporal Farrell to open the Eversweet margarine tub that he received a few weeks ago in the mail. In the tub was his mom’s Christmas cake. When the tea was perfect and our paper cups were filled, the tape was pulled from the tub and we all agreed: Bernadette Farrell makes the best Christmas cake in Canada.
The trip carried on. We visited more forward operating bases. Gen. Hillier made good on his goal of shaking hands with practically every soldier in harm’s way this Christmas. And by late afternoon we took the convoy back through “ambush ally” to the main base in Kandahar for the prime show of the tour for about 800 soldiers in the newly opened Canada House.
Max Keeping was our Master of Ceremonies, Gen. Hillier gave a speech of a lifetime, Mary Walsh made me laugh like the old days, Damhnait Doyle sang like an angel and the Montreal rock band Jonas played late into the night. I was supposed to take the mic for 15 minutes, but I stayed for 25. A tad selfish, but honestly I can’t imagine I will have so much fun performing ever again.
Everywhere we went on this trip men and women in uniform thanked our little gang for giving up our Christmas to be with them in Afghanistan. I know that I speak for everyone when I say we gave very little and we received far too much. We met great friends, we had lots of laughs and dare I say had the best Christmas ever.
Posted by Rick Mercer on his blog
Les
I want to see the 25,000 kids that need daycare spaces, or the parents of these kids. Who and where are they. Many of the problems today are created by do gooders. Individual pkging for many of our food products were brought about by some some consumer group. This led to more garbage, emmissions, and other problems. Try to set up a day care facility. The rules and regulations that some advocacy group demanded makes it impossible.
How about car seats being mandatory up to age 6. This led to bigger cars needed for families with more than one child. These advocates for this or that should be educated in the fact that every action causes an equal and opposite reaction. Too bad they can’t ask themselves-What if- and then decide on their demands. The feminazies have done more harm to our environment, standard of living, rights and freedoms, and waste of taxpayers money than any other group-except liberals. Time for all of them to disappear for good, or use their own money like Real Women do.
“Non-profit group”. Now, there’s a euphanism
That should be “euph-e-mism”.
Let’s not give the “intellectuals” unnecessary ammo. Correct and delete this post?
I would have to believe his Christmas in Afganistan with the troops was for self promotion and a ploy to make his ilk look good.
If one is to believe this, one must also assume the same holds true for Mercer’s visit to Kabul in the fall of 2003, or his return in October 2005, or his visit to RMC in January 2005, or his visit to CFB Moosejaw in February 2005, or his visit to CFB Cold Lake last fall, or any of his many rants on the defence budget over the years. He is apparently also the sole civilian recipient of the Canadian Armed Forces Commander Land Force Command commendation – due precisely to his support of the CF.
Personally, I believe that his interest and care is genuine on this point.
I am following a recent news story on a family that left their three month old at daycare and had him returned to them blind and brain damaged from an alleged shaking. Anecdotal but chilling. IMHO there is no good reason for people to turn a new baby over to the care of strangers nor should the government promote it.
Re the Rick Mercer letter….
People had to travel with Mary Walsh?? Now that’s truly cruel and unusual punishment!
Re the MSM…not just CBC but the entire MSM has been on an Anti Bush / Anti Conservative Rhetoric and Hyperbole Fueled Rocket for the last week … I expect the apogee is near and they will soon crash and burn!
while we are on these topics it should be
U- fem -ism
I just read that Shaw is refusing to put any more $ into the Canadian TV (CBC Tax) fund.
Good.
Let the dismantling begin. I am completely sick and tired of funding the Librano propaganda machine. And we all know that’s pretty much what it is.
Tear it down. It’s past its usefulness.
re: Mercer’s hit piece on the Accountability Act.
The CBC brass are steadfast in their opposition to accountability – they’re taking in a billion taxpayer dollars annually – one of the reasons they campaign for the corrupt Liberal Party. Mercer’s their funny little attack poodle – he’ll hit what he’s told or he’s out of a job.
Julie Van Dusen is the lead protester of the parliamentary press gallary. Almost half of the PPG worked for the Chretien Broadcasting Corporation. Any wonder she has nothing positive to say about anyone that makes her work for a story. The Liberals used to feed the PPG stories. That’s why it was considered a plum posting.
Now that the free stories are dried up many reporters are being called back to their towns or their contracts have not been renewed. No wonder they’re so upset at Harper. That’s also the reason their chief bingo caller – perky Taber – has honed her skills with her gossip column and it’s “hot/not hot” list.
Ordinarily, I’d have corrected my spelling fairly quickly… but today my hard drive cacked just after putting that post up. (I’m back online with my desperately slow and unstable mini-laptop, and can’t be bothered at the moment)
if Mercer wasn’t on the CBC dole, he’d be just another poor, broke comic.
“if Mercer wasn’t on the CBC dole, he’d be just another poor, broke comic.”
Sure. He has no talent at all and has never been anything but a CBC welfare bum.
————–
Rick Mercer’s Monday Report, a weekly half-hour of topical comedy, debuted on CBC Television in January 2004; it is now in its second season. In November 2004, Mercer received the National Arts Centre Award at the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards, and in December 2004, he received two Gemini Awards: Best Writing in a Comedy’ and Best Performance in a Comedy’ for the CBC Television series Made in Canada.
Mercer began his career in comedy performing and writing a series of one-man stage shows, beginning with Show Me the Button, I’ll Push, which debuted at the National Arts Centre in 1990 and went on to tour across the country. Subsequent theatre performances included I’ve Killed Before, I’ll Kill Again (1992) and Canada: A Good Place to Hide (1995).
In 1994, Mercer launched his television career as a performer and writer on the topical weekly show This Hour Has 22 Minutes, which he left in 2001. In 1998, he joined Gerald Lunz and Michael Donovan to create the satirical dramatic series Made in Canada, where he again starred and contributed as a writer. In 2001, his special Talking to Americans became the highest rated Canadian comedy special of all time with 2.7 millions viewers. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Le Monde and Los Angeles Times all ran articles about Talking to Americans, and Mercer went on to discuss it on ABC’s Nightline and NBC’s The Today show.
In the fall of 2003, Mercer went to Afghanistan to entertain the troops and tape Rick Mercer’s Christmas in Kabul special.
Rick Mercer has received over 25 Gemini Awards for television writing and performance. In June 2003, he was given the Sir Peter Ustinov Award at the Banff Television Festival. In 2002, he was presented with an honorary Doctor of Letters from Laurentian University. He is the sole civilian recipient of the Canadian Armed Forces Commander Land Force Command commendation in recognition of his support of Canadian peacekeepers. Among numerous other awards, he has been co-named Journalist of the Year at the Atlantic Journalism Awards, Artist of the Year from the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council, and he has received a number of Canadian Comedy Awards.
Hosting duties have included the East Coast Music Awards, the 2000 Gemini Awards, the Juno Awards, the history series It Seems Like Yesterday, and the annual Canada Day show from Parliament Hill.
Mercer’s writing has been published in both Time and Maclean’s and his 1998 book Streeters went to the No. 1 position on the Globe and Mail national best-seller list. Feature film appearances include The Vacant Lot (1989), Understanding Bliss (1991) and Secret National (1992).
In the spring of 2005, Rick received an Honorary Doctor of Letter degree from Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Les
Receiving a gemini or juno does not say much for anyone, considering the lack of really good talent in canadian tv, films etc. Those that are really good are in the USA. I predict that the cast, writers, producers etc of lmotp will receive most of the awards this year. How many watched it last night. And, as one writer said, many may have watched, but how many laughed. How long before there is not wall to wall, or page long coverage of this program. Have they seen it in the ME, how long before the riots and bombings and carbques start. The cbc can try all it wants and so can the writer, but they can’t hide the truth, all terrorists are muslims, and they are not a peaceful people. Until so called moderate muslims protest in our streets about the beheadings, killings of muslims by muslims, hanging girls for killing rapists and turn in all sleeper cell members, and quit trying to turn canada into a muslim state, I will never believe there is a so called moderate muslim and they all have a secret scary agenda.
sierra – if you think the Accountability Act is ‘toothless’, remember that the Liberal Senators rewrote it to make it exactly that; they took out any capacity to make their own activities accountable, for one thing.
I noticed the newest excuse being thrown around by some Liberal bloggers these days is that the Liberal’s tried to fix the enviroment and meet Kyoto but Harper and the Conservatives voted down everything they tried to do.
Well,seeing as the Liberal’s had a majority 12 of their 13 years,can anyone explain how Harper and the Tories managed to vote all these things down,cause they don’t seem to have an answer for me.
I agree with you Mary T., especially as I’m reading Because They Hate:A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America by Brigitte Gabriel. She grew up in Lebanon during the Lebanese War…and has since moved to the U.S. She tells it like it is, and if more people read this book, then they couldn’t deny anymore what is happening. The fact that she is Lebanese makes the warning all the more credible, because no one can say “it’s racist” what she is saying.
There is so much I could quote from this book, but I’ll just retype one paragraph….”And yet, there are still Americans who are unable or unwilling to recognize the nature or the extent of the threat presented by radical Islam. Whether motivated by naive wishful thinking or rigid political correctness, they assert that Islam is a ‘moderate,’, ‘tolerant,’ and ‘peaceful’ religion that has been hijacked by ‘extremists.’ They ignore the repeated calls to jihad, Islamic holy war, emanating from the government-controlled mosques of so-called moderate Islamic countries such as Egypt, Pakistan, and Indonesia. They refuse to accept that in the Muslim world, ‘ex’treme is ‘main’stream.”
By the way, weren’t those 25,000 new child care spaces promised by the CPC government – beginning in 2007?????? So, why the fuss that the government hasn’t done it? The agenda is BEGINNING IN 2007.
Rick Mercer was once a member of the NL NDP.
Rex Murphy ran for the election to the NL House of Assembly as an NL NDP.
shows that in the “newfoundland nation” being a big gabber isnt necessarily noticable at all.
they are all blarney artists , a cultural distinction Im sure.
Rick Mercer to me is just another sneering homo who probably would have a job flipping burgers were it not for the CBC. I find Mary Walsh to be an absolute sow too. These pustules represent the best that the CBC can do, too.
ET …that bit of information re: the spaces for 2007 must have been ‘accidently’ overlooked by JVD.Does that answer your question jeff(11:05 am)?
I too would like to know more about these parents losing sleep over ‘not enough spaces’ Lysack is famous for using those ‘scary’ numbers’ to her advantage.CCA has received federal funding in the past,so they could do their ‘reports and studies’ without results while the Libs were in.
While we are at it …let’s hear from some parent’s who have chosen to stay home now, or who find the 100/month has eased their burden a bit, because they were already staying home.