The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Ladies and Gentlemen, Rick Mercer

Episode Date: May 1, 2023

An extended conversation with Canadian author, comedian and yes, icon, Rick Mercer.  If he was still doing his famous rants today what and whom would he be ranting about?  But we start with an engaging story about a meeting between a young Prince Charles and an amazing woman from northern Scotland. All this as the excitement (not) builds towards Coronation Day on Saturday.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You are just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. It's Monday and we've got a special show for you today. Ladies and gentlemen, Rick Mercer will be with us. Coming right up. And welcome to another week right here on the bridge. I'm Peter Mansbridge and I'm back in Canada after, well, an extended stay in Scotland. And had a wonderful time and was busy writing and contributing to a new book that I'm doing with Mark Bulgich, my good friend, who together we wrote Extraordinary Canadians a couple of years ago. This is different. This one will be different, and I'll tell you all about it when I'm allowed to tell you all about it.

In terms of this week, we're going to start off with an interview with my old friend and somebody who you adore, Rick Mercer, the comedian and author who is so familiar to us through television over the last, gosh, I don't know, 20, 25 years, but has been absent from TV for the last couple of years. For the most part, he's done a couple of specials, but for the most part, he's been absent. What's he been up to? How's he thinking about different things? We're going to talk all about that when he joins us in a few minutes time. But I wanted to start, because this week is Coronation Week, I wanted to start, as I probably will a couple of times this week, with a story that relates to the king, Charles III, but probably a story you're not going to find anywhere else, at least not this week. And here's the one I'm going to

tell you today, because I think it's kind of neat. Have you ever heard of Megan Boyd? Probably not. Although anybody who is a fly fisher has probably heard of Megan Boyd, because she was credited with being the best fly fish tier in the world. You know those little ties that you adorn your hook with when you're fly fishing? Well, she was a great fly fish tire. She lived in a little community on the northeast shore of Scotland, overlooking the North Sea, called Brora, actually just outside of Brora. Now, whenever I've heard that story, I've wanted to go to that spot where she lived by herself.

And she did fish flies, fish fly ties. And so I was there just last week, standing on the shore overlooking the North Sea at a beautiful spot just outside of Brora, overlooking the Brora Sand Beaches and out towards the North Sea. Now, her house has stood there since she lived in it. She was born more than 100 years ago. 1915, died in 2001. The house still stands. It's in terrible shape.

The roof is caved in. The windows are broken. There's still furniture inside. The bones of furniture, like the kitchen sink and a beautiful kind of mantle around one of the fireplaces. But the house is a wreck. It's a tear down. The location is spectacular, overlooking the sea. Anyway, I was there last week because I'd heard this story,

and I wanted to try and place myself next to it. Well, here was this woman who lived alone, who did fly ties, and was acknowledged as the best, the best you could find. Well, you know who loves fly? Can I get these words out right? You know who loves fly fishing? Charles, as since he was a little boy. Well, somewhere, as the legend goes,

and they tell the story around Aurora, somewhere in the early 1980s, Charles was heading to northern Scotland. His grandmother lived there, Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, had a castle in the north end of Scotland. And he was heading up that way because he was going to do some fly fishing. And I guess he thought, I should really stop at Megan Boyd's place. I've never met her. But I should stop there. because she's the best.

So, driving north from wherever they'd landed, probably in Inverness, he pulled into the driveway off the A9, the main highway that heads north. They call it the North Coast 500 now. They pulled off the A9, went up her driveway.

And while his aide-de-camp and everybody else stood there waiting, he went up and knocked on the door. Macon Boyd comes to the door, opens the door, says, yes, can I help you? And Charles says, I'm just heading north, and I'm going to go fly fishing, and I've heard that you're the best, and I was wondering if there was any chance you might have a couple of those flies handy that you could sell to me.

She looked at him, and if she knew who he was, she didn't say so. But she looked at him, and she said, actually, I don't. I have some flies, but they're already accounted for. They've already been sold. And I'm just prepared to start making some new ones, but it'll be a while. And so Charles said, Oh, well, I'm very sorry to have bothered you, and I wish you did have one, but obviously you don't. And Megan Boyd said, Well, perhaps you can try again. And he turned around and left. Charles, the future king,

shot down on a request for a new fishing tie. So that's kind of the story, except later they did become friends. He wrote a letter, one of his aides wrote a letter to her and said, you know, Charles had been there recently and was hoping to buy a fish fly tie, and unfortunately you didn't have any, and we were wondering whether we could, you know, arrange for some to be made for him. And sure enough, a relationship developed between the two,

corresponding, and Charles would stop there on occasion. So that's kind of the story. He told his mother, the queen, about Megan Boyd. She awarded her a special place in the British Empire Awards and sent a letter up to Megan Boyd to explain that there would be a ceremony at Buckingham Palace. And Megan Boyd wrote back and said, you know, I'm sorry, I can't make it because I have nobody to look after my corgi. She had the same kind of dog as the Queen.

So there you go. The story of Megan Boyd and Charles. The once future, this week, to be coronated. Are you coronated? The coronation of the new king, King Charles III. The man who knocked on the door of Megan Boyd

and was told, sorry, don't have any. See you later, pal. Okay, time for Rick Mercer. Rick would have fun with that story, I bet. Time for Rick Mercer. But we don't want to interrupt him, so we'll take our one and only break right now, and then when we come back, we'll have our chat right after this well i don't think there's much i need to do say to introduce rick mer. He is one of you know, he's a proud

asset of our country, right? He's Rick Mercer. Star of the Rick Mercer Report. 22 minutes. Variety of books. I think four bestsellers already. And I'm sure this new one he's working on right now will be another bestseller.

But he's somebody we've missed through the last couple of years, because after he stepped away from the Rick Mercer report, he wanted a break. He wanted some calm in his life. But we've missed him. We've missed his particular brand of humor and his way of making us think about what it is, what particular issue we might be going through. So I reached out to Rick and said, let's talk. Let's talk about what you've been up to.

And he was nice enough to agree. So let's get it started. Here we go. Rick Mercer. So, Rick, I got a letter the other day from one of our listeners, and the request was simple. Where's Rick Mercer? And I've been wondering, why haven't you called?

We sometimes text outrage at each other. We do. But we haven't got together on the Zoom like this in quite a while. Well, the last time you told me where you were, you were in Los Angeles. Yeah, I was actually in Palm Springs. I'm working on a book, and I hadn't left the country in three years. And I had a lot of writing to do, so I actually in Palm Springs. I'm working on a book and I hadn't left the country in three years and I had a lot of writing to do. So I went to Palm Springs and I just sat in the warm and wrote for a couple of weeks. It was a great book and did extremely well. And you know, you were stuck at number one for, it seemed like months. So good for you. Congratulations on that. But what's the new one about? Can you tell us anything about it yet? Well, the working title was more about me.

I just pick up where I left off. And then I, and then I, it's the story of the road. The last book was a memoir, but it ended when I moved to Toronto to launch the Mercer Report. And of course, the Mercer Report happened, and I was on the road for 15 years nonstop. I traveled to every nook and cranny of the country, and the book is about those days. Do you miss those days? No, not really. i thought i would um i left on my own accord but of course the pandemic would have taken me out the year anyway because the show was so travel oriented and there was so many i would get emails from people who are watching it reruns during the pandemic and say it's so weird watching this

show you've hugged 30 people and we're only five minutes in um so i couldn't have done the show um but no i don't miss it i like to travel but i don't miss the travel you must see an awful lot of people though when you do travel who say come on you got to get back on there. Yeah. And that's very kind. I never know whether they're being sincere or not. What else are you supposed to say? How many people say you're my favorite anchor of all time? Then they say, Lisa Laflamme, Lisa, my God, you're my favorite anchor of all time. People are very kind. People are very kind. I thank my stars every day that I was on the CBC. When I was on the CBC, I'm sure you do the same thing, when we had a great audience.

And it was great fun to travel around the country, get the response that we got. It was great fun knowing that people were watching. That was just, that was a real, that was the greatest privilege of my life. Greatest honor. It was great. Yeah. And you're right about that. I mean, I've done a number of shows recently that have touched on the CBC because it's become a national issue. It's become a political issue. And there are, you know, there are questions about the CBC and its positioning these days.

It's not easy to be a broadcaster of any kind right now because everything's changing out there in terms of the technology of broadcasting and just in terms of the landscape for various networks. Excuse me, you're a horse today and now you somehow spread it to me across the Atlantic. I don't know how you managed to do that. But, you know, there have been a lot of things about the corporation that have been out there in terms of a discussion point.

And when we were in, at least when I was in the CBC, I was always reluctant to take part in any of those conversations because it felt like a conflict, right? Oh, absolutely. I never, ever spoke about public broadcasting, even when it became an issue. I could start today and still be here this time tomorrow and talk about the importance of public broadcasting. My book, as you so kindly mentioned, is in many ways a love story to the CBC because it had such a huge influence on my life as a child, believe it or not, and then as a young adult, and then eventually I ended up on the CBC. I was never an employee. I never was ever a CBC employee, but I was very much for quite a while. I was the face, one of the faces of CBC.

But even though I made my living talking about a lot of different issues, I never spoke to the CBC. It was, it just seemed like, you know, I had too much skin in the game. It was ridiculous. So now it feels very odd to talk about it. It's almost like a third rail. That said, when you're in the CBC, as you know, there's only two topics. How you would fix it if you were running it.

And what's wrong with this damn place? Even in the heyday. And we've all played that game. But it's very unfortunate to see it as a, you know, a point of discussion, whether it should even exist. I will say this, Pierre Poilier in Newfoundland got a really large applause break, as he does everywhere in the country, when he talks about defunding the CBC. And I never thought in my life I would see that. Newfoundlanders have always supported the CBC to an incredible level. And that would be no one in their right mind would go into Newfoundland and say defund the CBC.

And now he's getting an applause break. It's something to see. It's sad. In some ways, you know, I don't mind that he's made it a discussion point because I do think there needs to be a kind of national discussion and debate about the future of public broadcasting, national public broadcasting, and what it is exactly Canadians want out of their public broadcaster because there's a lot of confusion about that.

And, you know, politicians can't resolve it. People have to weigh in on this. You know, I'm not a fan of defunding, but I am a fan of discussing and debating and, you know, having different options put before us as to what could be a future for a public broadcaster in Canada. Well, I would welcome the conversation, and you're right. It has to happen because there's been many changes.

They've been incremental in many ways over the years, even when I was there, that I didn't like. And the big one was regional broadcasting. You know, living in Toronto, I could understand that it was very hard for CBC Toronto to say, to carve out an audience in a market that's flooded the way Toronto is. But where I grew up, Newfoundland was integral. It was part of the story. You know, I follow a fellow, he's well retired now, but on Facebook, and he puts up shows that he directed and produced at the CBC in his career in little old Newfoundland, when it was his own region.

And every musician of a certain vintage was on the shows. And every actor and Mary Walsh and Andy Jones and Kathy Jones, they all had like sketch comedy shows. And there was all of this material. CBC St. John's right now, they have a difficulty doing an in-studio interview in the same studio where they used to do big variety shows featuring Newfoundland artists and political chat shows and all of that business. And that's all gone away. And at the beginning of the pandemic, a decision was made to stop broadcasting completely in Newfoundland,

which I remember when someone told me, I said, no, you're wrong. You heard that wrong. And they said, no, they're not going to broadcast out of Newfoundland. And it was in a national emergency. It's like, no, you're wrong. You are 100% wrong. Take it from me. And then of course, I looked at my phone and that was the decision that was made. There were some bad decisions around that and, of course, I looked at my phone, and that was the decision that was made. There were some bad decisions around that, and, you know, clearly in Newfoundland, but across the country and initially on the local news front when the pandemic hit, it was, you know, that really hurt,

and they still feel the consequences today. Okay, we're not going to talk about the CBC. Okay, yeah, enough of that. Enough already. Yeah. You know, you're obviously known to talk about the CBC. Okay, yeah, enough of that. Enough already. Yeah. You know, you're obviously known for a lot of different things about your, you know, about the Rick Mercer report from earlier days in 22 Minutes, from, you know, among other things, jumping into a lake naked with Bob Ray.

I mean, that took a lot of courage. Standing on top of the CN Tower. I don't know how you did that. I can't even look up there, let alone stand up there, but you're also, you know, you're, you're really known for your rants, right? Um, and so I got to ask you if you were still doing rants today, what would you be ranting about? Well, of course I'd be pumping one out every week. Right now, one of the things I rant about is, and this is bad news for Justin Trudeau, is the price of a Kit Kat.

And I don't even eat Kit Kats. But near the end of the summer in Conception Bay, South Newfoundland, I was in the home hardware, and I looked at the cash. There was a Kit Kat, and it said $3.49. And I went, my God. Now, I have many vices, but buying chocolate bars is not one of them. So it's been a long time since I bought a chocolate bar. And I said, is that right? $3.49 for a chocolate bar?

And she said, I know, isn't that crazy? So it was right. Then I started everywhere I went. I began pricing the KitKat, no matter what kind of store I was in. And I just think that inflation, people gassing up the tank and feeling it at the tank, I'm not, you know, I don't have it in me to stand up and say, Mr. Speaker, it's because of Justin Trudeau

that Kit Kat's $3.49, because you can get them at the dollar store for a dollar. But I think that that is the issue of our times. Absolutely. It's the new COVID. For a while, every time anyone saw each other who had the COVID, what's going on with COVID? Did you hear about this? Did you hear about that? Now it's all about the price of gas or all about the price of housing. It's all about cost. And very bad news for Justin Trudeau, I would expect.

Well, it's bad news for anybody in government when inflation takes hold like this and they don't seem to have any answers but opposition leaders whoever they may be seem to be able to get away with just criticizing and not saying of course if i was there this is what i would do and inflation would come down they never said that and quite frankly i think pierre poliet has done a really good job but he's getting very close to jumping the shark. Two days ago, I watched a video of Pierre Poiliev, and he's at a Sikh festival, the spring festival, the spring harvest festival. And he goes, where are we? And this Sikh fellow says, oh, it's the festival, the spring harvest. And Pierre looks at the camera and

says, but of course, you're the one who plants the seeds. You grow the crops, but Justin Trudeau is coming and taking your seeds and taking your crops. I was like, this is a really a bridge too far. Nevermind, there is no spring harvest in Canada. I don't know. I don't know what it thinks people are planting and growing,

but it's really, I think he's very close to jumping the shark. And yesterday in the House of Commons, you know, complaining about Justin Trudeau going to New York and saying, I pay for my hotel rooms, do you pay for yours? And will he pay for his? And I'm wondering, does he believe that he pays for his hotel rooms? He doesn't pay for his hotel rooms. You know that, I know that. But yeah, he'll just say it it when was the last time he paid for a hotel room come on he lives in a house owned by the government with a maid and a driver

it's uh it's absurd you know when you you mentioned polyev's videos now some people say he learned to do those videos walking walking around, talking into his camera. Yeah. He learned those by watching Mercer. Well, they're somewhat similar. And I'll tell you, it was, I can't tell you how many times I, you know, wanted to kick myself for starting to do rants that were all in one take and moving because it's just not to blow my own horn, but it's really hard. It takes a lot of takes. It's a lot of work.

And he's very good at it. He's very, very good at it. I don't know how many takes, maybe he'll lie and say he does it in one, but he's pretty good. I got to say when you did your content does matter. The content does matter. And I think he's, I mean, if I was advising him, I would really have him dial it down. I sincerely believe that he hates Justin Trudeau. Not that he disagrees with him. That's fine.

But I don't think it's a good image for a public figure or someone who wants to lead the country to kind of be oozing hate. I think it won't get you across the finish line. I don't think either of them like each other. I mean, I don't know whether hate is too strong a word, but I think it's close to a mutual feeling between the two of them. It could very well be. It could very well be.

And I, you know, the other thing i would be ranting about is that i can't believe there's not more forces in play telling justin trudeau it's time for a walk in the snow um he's just been there for a long time i think i think politicians in his position when they become prime ministers um you know politics is my baseball and always fascinated me. But like with baseball, people become obsessed with these idiotic statistics that really mean nothing. You know what baseball people like. And Trudeau is doing the same thing. He's going, well, if I just hang in there for another year and a half, I will then be one month. I will serve one month more than Brian Mulroney. And then if I hang in for another year, oh, my God, I'll be in.

And this is the motivation that they have at this point. Instead of like, how about it's time to go? The other thing he's doing with actors sometimes, if they're in a role, the director has to come back in every couple of months because the actors get bigger every night. And then eventually the directors have got to come in and step on them and say, bring it down, bring it down. And that's what Justin is doing. I watched him announcing this battery plant and he's saying,

he doesn't say we'll get our, you know, investment back in five years. It's we'll get our investment back in five years. Is this the opening of a battery plant or are you auditioning for Lear? What are you doing? Just bring it down, dude. You know, using that, it's a real Trumpian phrase. You know, some people say, but because he used to use it all the time, he still uses it.

Some people say, and we're supposed to assume that means it's true. But there are those who argue, well, let's put it that way, that Trudeau may well have been thinking of leaving after the last election, the disappointment of another minority. But what changed his mind was the emergence of Pierre Pauliev, that he just can't stand the thought of walking away from a fight with this guy. He doesn't like him. They don't like each other. He wants to fight him like he had that boxing match,

whenever that was, years ago. Most people didn't give him a lot of hope for winning that thing, and yet he went into it and he trained and he worked hard and he won the boxing match. And he looks at this as, I can't leave this guy. I can't leave the stage to him. I've got to take him out. That's interesting.

I guess it's possible someone in his position would say, could decide I'm the best chance of beating this guy. I'm going to do it for Canada. So I guess he's doing it for altruistic reasons. I don't see it, Peter, the altruistic reasons. I don't. But I do get the, I want to beat this guy. I can see that as a motivation.

Well, I guess we're, well, it could be a couple of years before we find out the answer to that. Yeah, absolutely. And if the election was tomorrow, it would be fascinating to see what would happen. Okay, what beyond politics interests you? Are you a monarchist? I mean, you're from Newfoundland. Aren't they all monarchists in Newfoundland?

If I say no, will that preclude me being the lieutenant governor of Newfoundland? That's the ambition now? That's it. It's a lovely house. It is a lovely house. I've been in that house. It's a lovely house. And there have been some great Canadians who've occupied that house.

Oh, John Crosby was down there for sure. Jim McGraw? Yeah. Yeah, there Crosby was down there, for sure. Jim McGraw. Yeah. Yeah, there's been some great ones. Clearly, the monarchy's in serious trouble. You know, Canadians had such affection for Queen Elizabeth and such a, I mean, I don't know if we'll ever see another figure play a role like that in the world, the english world anyway ever i mean it's incredible

the history that she lived and i never wrote a book can you imagine what that book would have been worth how many rooms she was in uh yeah they're clearly in big trouble well what was it 60 of canadians really have no interest in charles king? That's astounding to me. It's a big number. And it's, you know, it's risen fairly quickly. And I think it's been because, as you say, you know, there was deep affection for Elizabeth, even if there wasn't deep loyalty to the idea of the monarchy. There was deep affection to her.

Yeah. I saw the writing on the wall when, in Newfoundland, Prince Charles, with Camilla, on the coming out of Camilla tour. First stop was in St. John's, Newfoundland. And 24 hours before, Danny Williams had to close all the schools on the Avalon and bus the children in because no one was going. They knew how many people were going to go because they were free tickets, but it was in a stadium. And nobody had an interest. And there was the prime minister and Danny Williams and Philip and Camilla and a bunch of seven-year-olds going, who are these people? And that was unheard of in Newfoundland.

Any royal visit would just have huge numbers, huge turnout. The royals loved going to Newfoundland any royal visit would just have huge numbers huge turnout the royals love going to newfoundland for that reason i remember when charles came to newfoundland in because i was there it was a 83 or just probably around somewhere around 83 when he came first visit with diana oh yeah i was there wall-to-wall people right i was there at the App Arena. And in fact, I'll tell you the story. My sister was in the car and her friend and I was in the car and we pulled up and they just as they were pulling in and my sister and her friend went like, oh my God, it's Diana.

I looked out and I saw you and I was like, holy shit, it's Peter Mansbridge. Yeah, sure you did. No, true. Well, I was a news junkie. I was a child, Peter. I'm substantially younger than you. I was a little child. But to me, that was so glamorous.

You had the big riser, and you were up there broadcasting with the lights. And when you're a kid like me, my God, that's like mop to a flame. Much more than the monitor. I should tell you the real story of that day sitting up on the riser nothing worked everything was plugged in the wrong way and it was just a disaster from one minute to the next it was quite something but she wasn't she was like well you know the people were just went crazy for her and they continue to do that throughout the tour. I remember in Halifax, I mean, I think they went from St. John's to Halifax, and in Halifax, they were worried that the grass

wasn't green enough, so they painted it green. Only in Canada, you say. But, you know, I was thinking, and I kind of mentioned it the other day on the podcast, that if, you know, I was thinking, and I kind of mentioned it the other day on the podcast, that if, you know, if certain things hadn't happened, if Charles and Diana hadn't gone separate ways, if she hadn't been, you know, killed in an awful car crash in Paris, if next week the coronation was Charles and Diana,

it would be a huge deal because of her. Yes, I think so. But who knows? I mean, absolutely, who knows? The queen probably did quite a disservice to Charles by just sticking around for as long as she did. You're really into this, anybody in a position, get out of it, let's go. A minute ago it was Trudeau, now you think the Queen should have left.

Part of leaving, if you're a prime minister, is you want to leave the party in some decent shape and the few bucks in the bank and give someone a chance to get their feet about them before an election. And likewise, Charles is an elderly man who's now supposed to be the king, and she's going to be the queen. You know, if Charles abdicated and passed it to the next generation, I think those numbers would not be 60%. If it was his son, I know there's a system in place and monarchists will say, well, it just doesn't work that way.

But if by magic it happened, I think the next generation would probably have some success. But never mind Canada. My God, look at half of the Commonwealth they're looking at. And now here's an old white man. Like, it doesn't wash. It just doesn't. We don't have that problem here but uh yeah a lot of

countries they're not interested in a white guy coming along and being their king so you're not out there hanging the bunting out on the street and uh in toronto for the correlation and you tell me you probably have your finger on the pulse of the canadian over there in Scotland than I do here is, is there any buzz around this coronation? No, I got to tell you, I mentioned the other day that I was here in Scotland, I was in, and I mean, the part of Scotland I'm in right now, there's enough, there was certainly an affection for Elizabeth. And they kind of like Charles, because he spent a lot of time fishing in this part of the UK. Not so much on Camilla, I don't think. But in terms of getting excited about the coronation, you know how they have all the cookie tins?

You can see them everywhere in cups and saucers and teapots and all that stuff with their faces on it. I mean, I still have the stuff from 81. I picked up some stuff from 81. I picked up some stuff after covering Charles and Diana's wedding. I still have the stuff. It looks a little odd, of course, these days. But anyway, in the stores, there are these setups for coronation stuff, you know, from T-shirts to cups and saucers. And I was in a couple of stores in the past few days,

and I waited and watched, and no one picked up anything at the stalls. Do you think there's really any entrepreneurs out there going, give me 10 million cookie tins with Charles and Camilla? No, there sure aren't. And, you know, the sales will start in another week after the coronation, and they still won't be able to move the stuff. That's a tough one.

But also times are different. The times are different. There was a time when something like that, the pageantry, would be so unique and a once- a lifetime experience. Whereas now they can watch Eurovision, which actually Charles and Camilla appeared on. I don't know if the queen would appear on the Eurovision broadcast,

but it's a new modern monarchy. It's like the Academy Awards. Once upon a time, everyone on the planet almost with a TV tuned in to the Academy Awards. Now they can't get a number. So the monarchy, they're no different than the CBC. Pining for the good old days. Now people just go, I don't watch the monarchy.

I don't watch them. I get my monarchy elsewhere. Okay. Our little circuit of the news of the day will conclude with this one. Biden-Trump. What do you think? Well, I wouldn't want to be. I'm not an ageist person. I don't like to think I am. And I'm sure Joe Biden will have his faculties, but there's a reason why when you're that age, you're not allowed to fly a commercial aircraft with a couple of thousand people in the back.

You know, you age out of certain occupations. You just do. And I think president might be one of them. But then Donald Trump is no spring chicken either. I mean, he seems like he's indestructible, but based on his lifestyle and his age, surely he can. So the chances of any one of them finishing another term is up in the air. I just can't believe that that's what it comes down to, those two people. I look at Pete Buttigieg. Now, I don't know if he could ever be elected president, the same way people didn't know if

Barack Obama could be elected president. But, you know, he's young, he's so competent, he speaks so many languages, he's a military vet. He's, you know, he's quick on his feet. I just think, why don't both parties have ten of them that they can choose from? They don't seem to. And I think this is also, if you look at Canada, you look at the front bench on both of the parties, the Liberals and the Tories. I don't mean to suggest there's only two. But if you look at the front bench, there's not a lot of strength there. I always think about it like a hospital.

We all know what it's like being in a hospital. We all know how complicated hospitals are. There's doctors, there's cleaning staff, and everything in between. And there's people who are sick, and the stakes are high. And then there's multiple unions, and there's helicopters taking off.

Imagine how complicated it is to run a hospital. And then you say, now, you think Doug Ford could run a hospital? And you go, no, no, my God, no, he could never run a hospital. He can be the premier, though. And it's the same thing, right? Would you pick Pierre Poilievre to run a hospital? Or Justin Trudeau? Or any of the front bench it's a big job the the the i think the quality of people going into those jobs uh it's very different now than it was 20 years ago 30 years ago think of the giants that were in brian marooney's cabinet there's none of those people around anymore same with cretchen's cabinet and you know pierre trudeau's cabinet too i mean there there were giants and you know

i i you know i get into this every once in a while i go is it just me is it because i'm you know of a certain age i remember what that time was like and whether it was cabinet ministers or premiers you know you tend to remember all those premiers from the early 80s the late 70s you remember them all they were all giants you know lawheed and Davis and Blakeney and Levesque and, you know, the list goes on. These days, you're kind of challenged to remember the names of all the partners. And, you know, I hate people attacking the elites,

quote-unquote elites, because I think it's this nebulous term and it just allows people to, you know, attack people for no other reason than they don't like them. But I will say, if you look at the front benches, how many of those people would be comfortable walking into a fish plant, sitting down in the lunchroom and having a chat? Not a lot of them. There's a lot of ivory towers in there. Even, when ralph goodale was around you know you could see ralph going into a gas station and talking to the guy who's underneath the underneath the hood of a car but this crowd you know and that goes for all of the parties it just seems like a bit of a debating club give me Give me your take on how Trump is still a player.

Here you've got a guy who was a draft dodger, failed business person, made it only because of the money his father gave him. All the different businesses he tried, he failed at. I guess you could argue that maybe he did okay in real estate, but I don't know. Every time you hear some of these business stories about Trump, you go, whoa, how did he get away with that?

You know, he's a reality TV star for a while until that plummeted. He gets into politics. He's impeached twice in one term. Yeah. He's indicted 34 times. He's going to be indicted a bunch more times on other charges. He's in the middle of a rape trial right now. And yet he is the likely nominee for the Republican Party.

How does that happen? I think there's a lot of angry people in the world. We could get into why they're angry. That's another issue. But he appeals to them. He said he drained the swamp, but really he was promising chaos. I'll blow it up. And for a lot of people who feel left out, they're like, good, yeah, do that.

And when he said, let's make America great again, brilliant slogan, I guess, but I guess he's talking about 50 years ago. Wasn't great for a lot of people 50 years ago. Wasn't great for working women. Wasn't great for African Americans, wasn't great for lots of people. But there's a whole group of people that it was great for, and now they feel shut out. And they also feel like they're being accused of being privileged, and they don't feel privileged, and they're angry for all sorts of reasons. And he promised chaos. Now he's actually at his rally in Waco. He said, I will be your vengeance. And he's he's floating that I will be your vengeance.

That's that's pretty out there. But there's obviously an audience for it. But I don't think he's electable. I mean, he saw a lot in the primaries that his people didn't do well at all. So the Republicans, they're kind of hooped. But he's probably going to get the nomination. Yeah. I don't know. It's chaos. It terrifies me.

Well, the one thing that had always made it easier for us when we were living through turbulent times and challenging times in the past was being able to listen and watch you. And so you're missed in that sense. There's no question about that. But your books are replacing some of that. Well, thank you very much. And volume 34 of your life story.

When will it be out? This fall? Who was it this fall? What was his name? Spike Milligan? Yeah. He wrote his memoir. And in the introduction, he said, after I wrote my memoir, I promised I would never write another book.

This is that book. Well, we're looking forward to it. Thanks very much, Peter. Listen, thank you for doing this, Rick. It's always a treat. Take care. You too. Rick Mercer, the one and only Rick Mercer.

Glad to have him by. Glad to have him on the program. And just underlining how much we do miss him, but obviously we're going to be able to read more from Rick, hopefully later this year, when his latest book, his another run at a bestseller, you can kind of guarantee that'll happen, should be out this fall. All right, we have time for

one more coronation story. Because I saw this the other day. I did that interview, if you hadn't already guessed, just before I left Scotland. So those were the references to, you know, across the Atlantic, etc. But just before I left Scotland, I was doing a little grocery shopping in, I think it was a Tesco.

And where was I when I did that? Dingwall, a little town called Dingwall in Scotland, in northern Scotland. And I saw this thing, you know, they had the Coronation stuff up at the front of the store, you know, the cookie tins, et cetera, which nobody was buying. But I was in the kind of meat and poultry section. And I saw this wrapped package, and it was called Coronation Chicken. And I thought, come on. Really?

This is the extent to which they're trying to package stuff to cash in on the coronation? And a food fit for a king? So I investigated as the journalist I am. Well, one of the lesser known traditions of the royalty group is the creation of special dishes. To mark Elizabeth's investiture back in, what was that, 52, 53, Coronation Chicken, or Pouletind elizabeth, was created. This dish, which resembles chicken salad, features cold chicken, herbs, and spices,

and a mayonnaise-type sauce. So that's what had been packaged in the Tesco, coronation chicken. But, wait, there's more. For Charles' coronation, the dishes also include coronation roast rack of lamb with Asian-style marinade. And a strawberry and ginger trifle. See what you're missing? See what you're missing?

See what you're missing? Coronation chicken and coronation lamb. Come on, Loblaws, Sayers, Safeway. Let's get in the game. Coronation chicken, please. That wraps her up for today. Tomorrow, Brian Stewart will be by, latest on the Ukraine situation. Rumblings again, just like Brian predicted two weeks ago. He said within a couple of weeks, there are going to be talk of negotiations. Who's suggesting them now? None other than the Pope.

Says he's working a secret back channel. We'll talk to Brian about that and other things. Ukraine. Wednesday, smoke mirrors and the truth. Bruce will be by. Thursday, your turn, so your cards and letters are more than welcome, at the Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com. The Mansbridge Podcast at gmail.com.

Random Ranter will be by as well. Friday, Good Talk, Chantel and Bruce. That's your snapshot of the week ahead. Looking forward to it. Have a great week. I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks so much for listening. Talk to you again in 24 hours.