King of the Road: Rick Mercer’s Futile, Fabulous Quest to Define ‘Canadian’

And now, for all present and wannabe Canadians, an informal citizenship test. Name the Canadian who has, at various times, skydived with the Skyhawks; sported a classic, sideshow “beard of bees”; survived a stock-car stunt called, the “train of death”; climbed into a snoozing grizzly bear’s den to tag her ear and cuddle her cubs; and – more benignly but no less impressively – played drums alongside the late, legendary Neal Peart of Rush.

For those who answered ‘Rick Mercer’, muted congratulations and no bonus points. Mercer is among the handful of Canadians who could show up in almost any town in English Canada and be recognized immediately — in part because he’s likely already been there. Now 54, Rick has been a fixture on Canadian television and stages in communities large and small coast to coast to coast since he was 19, when he had his first hit with the one-man play Show Me the Button, I’ll Push It, Or Charles Lynch Must Die. The show was a scathing response to a piece by the legendary political columnist that stretched to absurdity the constitutional parlour game of the day of tossing potential Meech Lake amending formulae into a blender, this time producing the sacrifice of Newfoundland as the price of peace. A son of Middle Cove, Mercer, per the show’s title, was livid. [MORE]