Goodbye For Now Rick Mercer

  As you read this imagine I am walking down a graffiti-filled alley....if you are Canadian that will make perfect sense.

  Canadians come together to celebrate, grieve and complain. We become one big small town in the face of disaster. We donate our time, our money and our homes even to help those worse off than us. It's what defines us. It's who we are.

  For the past fifteen years, we have come together on most Tuesday nights to watch one of our own show us our country in a different and unique way. We have seen ourselves from coast to coast to coast through your eyes. And we liked what we saw. Loved it in fact.

  We laughed at you as a rodeo "entertainer" and holding bear cubs. Sailing in the Bay of Quinte or doing moose calls in the north. Each week we learned something different about this great country of ours with humor and wit thrown in for good measure.

  You showed us politicians as real people. Celebrities as well. We felt bad for Jann Arden and the things you convinced her to do. Yet we waited for her to agree to come again. And yes Bob Rae's naked bum is embedded in the minds of too many of us.

  But what we all waited for was "The Rant". A few minutes where you spoke for most of us. Topics that affected us all in some way. Given from your own unique perspective. Whether we agreed with you or not, we listened and learned. You got to do what we all want to do...have a platform to get our message out there. Even if it was just about bad drivers.

  Thank you Mr. Rick Mercer. For reminding us how beautiful we are as a country and a people. For making us laugh every week for fifteen long years. For keeping us on our toes and for making us think. We cannot wait to see what comes next.

  Til next time....  

  Ang