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Interviews -
Toronto Talks
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By: Sergio Alvarado
January 11, 2010
After living on the east coast for his entire life, comedian Rick Mercer made the move to Toronto to start his show "The Rick Mercer Report" on CBC. A Torontonian for seven years now, Rick sat down with Experience Toronto writer Sergio Alvarado to talk about his show and his move to the city.
Sergio Alvarado: First of all, congratulations on your new season. The reviews and the numbers seem to be going really well for you.
Rick Mercer: Thank you! We're in our 7th year now, which is a good run for TV standards. This season is probably our biggest to date. I feel really good about the shows themselves, but also the ratings have been incredibly high. So it's been a gangbuster year.
Sergio Alvarado: Watching the show, I feel like I get a lot different types of entertainment. Do you think the format is what sells the show?
Rick Mercer: As a format, it doesn't make a lot of sense. We came up with a show that lets me do a lot of the things I thought that I was good at. I get to travel across the country meeting interesting people, which is something I love doing. I also get to do sketch comedy and I also get to do political commentary. There's no real format. Sometimes it's daring adventure and sometimes it's just a fun interview.
Sergio Alvarado: You've always been known for your political humour. Has that been a longtime passion?
Rick Mercer: I'm really lucky that there's an appetite for it in this country. It's kind of like my baseball. It's an obsession that came up when I was really young. I was ten or eleven and I was already obsessed with politics. When the cameras aren't rolling, I'm still talking about politics.
Sergio Alvarado: You decided to move to Toronto after having lived in the east coast your entire life. Was that a hard choice to make?
Rick Mercer: It wasn't that difficult. It was a big move to make, but I'm not the only Newfoundlander who has travelled across the country for work. Growing up, I never wanted to leave Newfoundland but I left at nineteen to Nova Scotia to do "This Hour has 22 Minutes". But when time came to do this show, I felt it was necessary to do it in Toronto. I was looking forward to the adventure but I didn't really know what to expect.
Sergio Alvarado: What were your thoughts on Toronto before moving?
Rick Mercer: Well you know, in Canada everything is rivalry and everyone is a rival of Toronto. I grew up with mixed feelings about Toronto but I came here with an open mind and I absolutely love this city. It's the most exciting move I've made in my life. I love the city more and more all the time and I'm a bigger booster for the city all the time. I find it hard to take when I travel across to other parts of the country and they feel that they can beat up Toronto for no reason.
Sergio Alvarado: Do you get a lot of that when you're on the road?
Rick Mercer: Generally it's good natured, but I have a lower tolerance of it now. I find myself defending Toronto much in the same way I defended Newfoundland 20 years ago. But nobody makes fun of Newfoundland anymore!
Sergio Alvarado: Why do you think the rest of Canada feels that way about Toronto? Where do you think it comes from?
Rick Mercer: There's a trend in Canada that I find very upsetting. I think it emanates from politics, the divisive nature of politics right now: one region of Canada is being pitched against another. You know, for Vancouver to be a good place to raise kids, Toronto has to be a bad place to raise kids. For Montreal to have a good music scene, Toronto has to have a bad one. And it's absurd. Every part of the country has something to offer. This is a fantastic place to live. Toronto is so multicultural; it's almost like a different planet than where I grew up.
Sergio Alvarado: Do you think that the multiculturalism is Toronto's determining selling feature?
Rick Mercer: It's a big part of it absolutely. I feel like I live in a movie because it's such a big city. It's a city with big franchise sports and has the biggest Gay Pride celebration in the world. It's where Caribana can be so gigantic that it takes up the whole city or where you can go eat whatever you want from any part of the world. I find all of that very exciting.
Sergio Alvarado: What part of the city did you move to?
Rick Mercer: I ended up on the Danforth, which was a total fluke. I didn't know the neighborhood.
Sergio Alvarado: How so? Weren't you at least somewhat familiar with the city beforehand?
Rick Mercer: You know, I've been coming to Toronto for business for years. But when you come to Toronto for business, you're downtown. So I didn't have a feeling for the neighborhoods. So moving to the Danforth wasn't based on the neighborhood. It was because I had to pick a place and had furniture coming! And it turned out to be a good decision.
Sergio Alvarado: So you've grown to love the neighborhood?
Rick Mercer: I love it. I love riding my bike in the ravine. I love all the restaurants on the street too. The best coffee I've found in the city opened up a block from my house, Broadview Espresso. The best diner, The Detroit Eatery, is nearby. They've got the best burger in town. Allen's is a great Irish Pub and the Danforth Music Hall is right there. It's pretty good to have a music venue down the street, and good coffee, and food. It's a great area to live.
Sergio Alvarado: What do you think is the biggest problem Toronto has?
Rick Mercer: Toronto beats itself up sometimes. They are embarrassed about bragging about the city because they know of the reaction they sometimes get. I think Toronto needs more Toronto boosters. I think it's great that we have a mayoral race that has four really great candidates running. We have four people running for mayor who would be great cabinet ministers or more in Ottawa. I think whoever that mayor is will be a good booster like David Miller was. I think Toronto should stand up for itself more. We have 23 seats in the federal government and we're treated like shit. Anyone who covers politics knows that the attitude in Ottawa is "screw Toronto" and that really needs to end.
The Rick Mercer Report is on CBC Tuesdays, 8:00pm EST.
For more Rick Mercer check out:
http://www.cbc.ca/mercerreport
http://www.rickmercer.com
http://twitter.com/rickmercer
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