# Rick Mercer's Jan 10th Rant



## NavalGent (11 Jan 2005)

Last night, Rick Mercer had an excellent rant, I've transcribed it to the best of my ability.

http://www.cbc.ca/mondayreport/

"There's no doubt about it, after the tsunami, Canadians desparately wanted to help out. So they dug deep. They gave money in record numbers, but they wanted to do more. So, as always in this country when bad things happen, we look to the armed forces, with the idea being, of course, that once again, they could travel to one of the most desparate places on earth, and do the hard work on our behalf. Which, ya know, sounds like a plan, after all, that's one of the reasons that they exist. But then we found out that, in fact the armed forces, they already had a plan: its called DART, Disaster Assistance Response Team. Military professionals trained and ready to go at a moments notice, and provide disaster relief and clean water. Which, ya gotta hand it to the armed forces, that's pretty smart thinking on their behalf. But they didn't go right away. Instead, we got to watch the defence minister, Bill Graham, yammering on in press conferences about 'maybe this isn't the time to send DART' or 'maybe we won't send DART at all.' But ya know, never once did he mention 'oh by the way, we've cut DART's budget to $250 000 a year'. $250 000, what the hell is the army supposed to do with that, buy a bungalow in Calgary!? That's not a real budget! That's a pretend budget, and the defence minister knows it. Because in Ottawa, $250 000 would barely cover the cost of the sandwiches that the people eat when they sit around in meetings and figure out new ways to screw over the armed forces. Disaster relief is exactly the type of work that Canadians want their armed forces to be able to do, and they'll do it, just give them the word. They'll go, they'll drop everything, they'll fly halfway around the world, they'll risk their lives if they've got to. And who gets the credit? We all get the credit. And a grateful nation treats them like crap in return. So c'mon Liberals, it's time to fix the armed forces, cause come hell or high water, its what Canadians want and its what Canadians need"


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## Devlin (11 Jan 2005)

It would be really great if somebody like Rick Mercer would do an interview with Army.ca. Wow could you imagine... 

Anyone got an actual transcript of his "rant".


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## dutchie (11 Jan 2005)

And he works for the CBC!!!!

Amazing, really.


Rick Mercer for MND!


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## goodform (11 Jan 2005)

I second that motion!  ;D


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## Bograt (11 Jan 2005)

Someone give him a rifle. 

Another fine Newfoundlander


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## jmackenzie_15 (11 Jan 2005)

lol someone give him a riflle....

I admire his effort, he seems to try and make some kind of statement about the current ... 'effectiveness' whenever he gets an opportunity.And rightfully so.
Now only if Colin Mockery would say something about it, theres no WAY the PM could say no to TWO Canadian comics =p

After this white paper review comes out, we'll see how serious and comitted to fixing the CF Mr Martin really is.


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## Tpr.Orange (11 Jan 2005)

DAMN RIGHT Rick MERCER! your the man!


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## Peace_Keeper (11 Jan 2005)

Rick mercer is the best


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## Armymedic (11 Jan 2005)

Nothing like saying it like it is...

 :gunner:


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## ArmyRick (11 Jan 2005)

He does have a point, BUT I fear I know what will happen, IMO is this....

The CF will not get extra money out of this DART ordeal but DART's funding will be boosted (probably very much so) and some one else's budget in the CF will shrink ...
Then some very positive and cheery comments will be made how the CF has expanded it's DART capability...


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## 4CDO PARA (11 Jan 2005)

Rick Mercer, you have to love that guy. That was refreshing.


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## bossi (11 Jan 2005)

It's so refreshing to be reminded that there are intelligent, witty, articulate Canadians out there who support our Army ...

Hmmm ... aren't they looking for a new CF Ombudsman?
(hmmm ... what a reality TV show THAT would make ...!!!)


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## jmackenzie_15 (11 Jan 2005)

ROFL good one bossi  ;D


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## Michael Dorosh (12 Jan 2005)

Devlin said:
			
		

> It would be really great if somebody like Rick Mercer would do an interview with Army.ca. Wow could you imagine...



Imagine what?  Fifty paragraphs of him agreeing with us?


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## mo-litia (12 Jan 2005)

Rick Mercer, you're gonna get fired; the CBC will work hard to suppress such honesty! ;D

Not to detract from our fine logistics people - who are miracle workers, considering their resources - I saw a picture in the Sun today. It was a local Sri Lanken helping the the troops out with a flat. The CF lacked the necessary werewithal to repair it themselves so they had to get it reapired at a local garage.

Thanks a lot, you Liberal *********** for forcing the troops to rely on local infrastructure in a devastated area!   It's a good thing there's a not war on. Oh wait a minute . . . :rage:

Edited for content.


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## Bruce Monkhouse (12 Jan 2005)

Mo-litia,
This is your only warning before Moderator action will be taken, there is no need for language like that on this forum.
I find it even worse when you know its wrong and purposely misspell or alter so it goes through the filter.
This is a public forum and some of us have our real names up here and wish to keep it a site I can let my children read.
Anyone who has a question on this can refer to my tag-line below.
Thank you


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## Fruss (12 Jan 2005)

For those who wants to watch it, here's the website: http://www.cbc.ca/mondayreport/

I couldn't find a direct link to the video..  if someone can find this, it would be useful to post it as this rant will disappear from the front page next monday...

Frank


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## pbi (12 Jan 2005)

Wow. Surprise, surprise. Somehow I didn't expect that from him. Good one, Rick Mercer. Cheers.


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## mo-litia (12 Jan 2005)

Bruce Monkhouse said:
			
		

> Mo-litia,
> This is your only warning before Moderator action will be taken, there is no need for language like that on this forum.
> I find it even worse when you know its wrong and purposely misspell or alter so it goes through the filter.
> This is a public forum and some of us have our real names up here and wish to keep it a site I can let my children read.
> ...



My apologies. I thought that using *** to block out key letters was acceptable as I have seen it in other posts.  You are correct in that it was inacceptable and it won't happen again. :-[


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## Wizard of OZ (12 Jan 2005)

It should be a suprise to no one.

Rick has been a strong support of the CF throughout his career.   His best rant was the comercial he did with the troops in the Stan.   The one about the equipment it was priceless.

He would be an excellent MND but he would have to be taller to stay above all the bull well you now the rest.

Increasing the budget for the DART hey well i here we have three subs for sale slightly used........and anybody want a used helicopter hey if they are good enough for the President of the United States........  

Ohh why do we even bother sometimes.


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## camochick (12 Jan 2005)

Rick Mercer is awesome. I loved his Canadian Forces Light video he made haha. I think its great to have someone in the spotlight gunning for the military. >


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## Wizard of OZ (12 Jan 2005)

Thats the one camochick.

I could not remember the name of the video but that one had me laughing for days.

Frank 

All you have to do is go to the history (past) section and they are all kept there nice and neat and tidy like.


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## Bograt (12 Jan 2005)

If you may recall, he also did a "We're here for a good time" video while visiting troops in FYR. It was on the 22 minutes website. I'll see if I can find it.


http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/Feature_Story/2004/jan04/28_f_e.asp
By Capt Darren Steele


Comedian Rick Mercer (centre), along with Sgt Paul Ogilvie (left) and MCpl Sean Rhoads (right) both from Quebec Company of the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment Battalion Group, tape a segment for Rick Mercer's Christmas in Kabul.
Photo by Sgt Alain Martineau 

Have you ever wanted to be in a television show? Do you dream of directing or producing, or would you be satisfied with hanging around behind the scenes to see how it all comes together? Well, that's what I got to do when CBC's Rick Mercer took veteran rocker Tom Cochrane and singer Damhnait Doyle to Kabul to do a Christmas special with the troops on Operation ATHENA.

At the beginning of September, television producer Geoff D'Eon called J5PA with an idea: CBC would like to stage a variety show at Camp Julien and film it for prime-time broadcast at Christmas. Was the CF interested? Yes, very interested.

This was not the first CF operation for Mr. D'Eon or Mr. Mercer, both went to Bosnia in 2000 with cameraman Patrick Doyle to do a short segment of â Å“This Hour Has 22 Minutesâ ?. Mr. Mercer in a flak jacket and soldiers singing â Å“I'm Here For A Good Time, Not a Long Timeâ ?, was a huge hit, bringing more than 20 000 e-mails in support of Canadian troops to DND and CBC Web sites.


Rick Mercer performs during the recording of his television Christmas Special in Kabul, Afghanistan at Camp Julien. This was a special performance for members of the 3 RCR BG who are currently stationed in Kabul in support of Operation Athena. 
Photo by Cpl Ronald Duchesne

Mr. Mercer is a strong CF supporter, and he wanted to do a show, that was bigger and better than the first. The 2003 effort was, indeed, a much bigger deal. It involved literally hundreds of details, many critical, and some hard to take seriously at firstâ â€like wanting to send a Christmas tree to Kabul.

The CBC really had its heart set on a tree and, sure enough, on November 28, a three-metre pine arrived at 8 Wing Trenton for shipment to Kabul.

One detail at a time, everything got done: equipment shipped, team cleared, flights booked. On December 7, we took off for Kabul, a two-day trip by way of Dubai, where Sergeant Alain Martineau, Combat Camera and I joined the CBC troupe.

From the moment we arrived in Afghanistan until the moment we left, we never stopped noticing how different everything was from home. The trip to Camp Julien was a blur of bombed buildings, punctuated by new construction. The markets we saw were full of food and other goods, and the people seemed happy. Camp Julien amazed us. It's bigâ â€and we should know; we circled it often enough with the CBC videographers gathering footage.


Tom Cochrane and Damhnait Doyle perform for the troops during the recording of Rick Mercer's television Christmas Special in Kabul, Afghanistan at Camp Julien. 
Photo by Cpl Ronald Duchesne 

Despite the months of preparation, I was astounded by the work ethic of the CBC team. They went non-stop from sun-up until well after dark, especially the performers. They were, after all, doing far more than making a TV show; they were there to perform for the troops, and the Christmas special was just a good excuse. While the stage, lighting and sound crews set up the performance venue, Mr. Mercer and Mr. Cochrane toured the camp, joking, singing and chatting with everyone they met. On the last day, they even made a special trip to Camp Warehouse.

The 90-minute variety show was staged three times to ensure that as many troops as possible could see it despite round-the-clock duty schedules. 

There really is no business like show business. Mr. Mercer utilized additional footage from the trip earlier this month showcasing a number of soldiers in Kabul and making clear his support for the CF and its members during an episode of â Å“The Monday Reportâ ?.


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## Fruss (12 Jan 2005)

Here's the link for the CF Light video:
http://www.cbc.ca/clips/mondayreport/kabul_greetings.rm

That's a great video!!  

Cheers

Frank


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## 2 Cdo (12 Jan 2005)

Great Rick Mercer wants more money for the CF so the DART can go be humanitarians. Meanwhile those of us in the forces who initially thought the military was to train for war, are to become more humanitarian forces.
All those people who think that any extra money will not come out of our operational budget are sadly disillusioned. As an infantry soldier I really get tired of people referring to peace-keeping as my job. My job is to close with and destroy the enemy! 
I love the fact that he is speaking out but really all that is going to happen is the combat arms will have even less money to conduct training.


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## HollywoodHitman (12 Jan 2005)

2Cdo.....Amen Brother. I think Rick Mercer is great, but the population is being misled about what the CF is for. Simply being Canadians makes us great at humanitarian operations. The misconception that we're peacekeepers is too widely supported by the Feds, to justify our existence and the pitiful, shameful and negligent level of funding and support we currently receive. Peacekeeping is but one very small aspect of what we do. Train for war, train like we fight and rely on good leadership and soldier professionalism to tone it down a notch when we have to be nice to people.

Close with and Destroy the enemy......Not close with, hug, shelter and feed the enemy. We'll do that when they're lawful prisoners or when the battle is over. 

 - my $.02


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## jmackenzie_15 (12 Jan 2005)

Couldnt agree more Hitman. Well said.

But this is the 'new' army.And if we are purely 'peackeepers' why are there all kinds of parts of the worlds that we arent involved in keeping the peace? Sudan and Iraq to name some examples, both called disasters by the UN. So if we arent 'peacekeepers' then we must be warriors, but the politicians dont seem to like that idea.Since when was a friendly Hi how are you doing wanna go get coffee later army ever effective at destroying the enemy and defending its nations interest?

Close with and destroy the enemy indeed.I don't think we are very well or properly represented to the Liberals or the general public.If you ask a regular joe off the street he wouldnt know that our army and peacekeepers arent the same thing.


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## dutchie (12 Jan 2005)

Just to bring it back into focus: Rick Mercer was commenting on the pitiful state of funding for the CF in general, using the example of DART funding. He didn't actually say anything about Peacekeeping, did he?

I agree with you on all your points, BTW - Peacekeeping is merely a tasking, it is not our job nor our trade. 

I think that if we were to attempt to deploy to some dirt hole in some far off land in a combat role, but money, poor logistical support, lack of decisiveness, and lack of balls on the part of our fearless Leaders in Ottawa prevented it, I'm pretty sure Rick Mercer or someone like him would be screaming just as loud. This 2 week delay in deploying DART is embarrassing, as the world is watching. If Canada was 2 weeks late getting to the war, we'd be even more embarrassed, and guys like Rick would point it out.

I like what he said, I hope to hear more, but I doubt it will have the slightest impact on our budget. As I'm sure you all know, very few people in Ottawa actually care about the state of our military, or the state of our soldiers for that matter. We need a major war (that we're participating in); a major incident directly linked to disgustingly low funding causing the death of many soldiers, civies, or both; or a Conservative government with real will to fund the CF to reasonable levels.

Ok, so I guess I just brought us back off track.....


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## Wizard of OZ (12 Jan 2005)

Thats OK

He was just as vocal when the 3rd heard had to hitch a Yankee ride to the Stan.

He was just as vocal when we could not get the heavy stuff into the Stan.

Yes there is a great difference between peacekeeping and being in the army.

1. we don't drive VW vans. (yet)
2. our glasses are not rose coloured.


see u can have fun.

Someday sometime soon the government will wake up hopefully not to late.

to be honest though i think the fault falls on our upper ranks in Ottawa and the bureaucrats that run the place.


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## camochick (12 Jan 2005)

I think the biggest problem with the general public is that they are afraid we will turn into the U.S. They think if we give alot of funds to our military that we will have this huge army and get into wars and such. Being Canadian these days seems to mean that we are not Amercian, meaning we are not war mongering ignorant baby killers(I"m not saying thats what americans are but that seems to be what alot of Canadians think) Our whole identity lately has been about not being American, and it's funnny because this ignorance is just the thing we complain about when it comes to Amercians. I have talked to so many lefty hippies who would love to see us not even have a military which is obsured but they seem to think it will work. I don't even know if there is a way to fix the image of our military, most people refuse to believe that it's anything more than peacekeeping. I argue with people about this all the time, especially the "hippies" i am going to school with. Rick Mercer is the biggest celebrity supporter the military has. The yahoos in Ottawa don't seem to care, so I say yay for Rick Mercer, atleast he is trying.  >


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## armybuck041 (13 Jan 2005)

Link to the rank:

http://www.cbc.ca/mondayreport/videos/ricks_rant_jan_10_2005.wvx

Right Click, Save As....


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## Wizard of OZ (13 Jan 2005)

Camochick

I have to agree with you. Be Canadian seems to be un-American

But to be honest you do come from BC right?  Isn't dodgeing hippies a fact of life out there. :dontpanic:

As for Rick being the only one, I don't know about that, but with a new CDS in house maybe things will get better.


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## Armymedic (13 Jan 2005)

2 Cdo said:
			
		

> Great Rick Mercer wants more money for the CF so the DART can go be humanitarians. Meanwhile those of us in the forces who initially thought the military was to train for war, are to become more humanitarian forces.
> All those people who think that any extra money will not come out of our operational budget are sadly disillusioned. As an infantry soldier I really get tired of people referring to peace-keeping as my job. My job is to close with and destroy the enemy!
> I love the fact that he is speaking out but really all that is going to happen is the combat arms will have even less money to conduct training.



I for one felt Mercer speaks of this particular lack of funding to show a larger problem.

I have a prob with this statement in particular:

_Meanwhile those of us in the forces who initially thought the military was to train for war, are to become more humanitarian forces.
All those people who think that any extra money will not come out of our operational budget are sadly disillusioned._

And once we have finished closing with and destroying, what comes after that? 

Those same equipment, skills and training that the medical platoon have for the DART is the same as what we use in support of the cbt arms in all phases of military operations... We don't do any special medical training specific to, or use any special kit for humanitarian missions.

I would assume the same for the engineers as well.

So even if they CF doubles the budget of the DART to $0.5 mil, its still significantly less then the training budget of the brigades.

Besides every piece of good press we get just helps us all out more


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## armybuck041 (13 Jan 2005)

Armymedic said:
			
		

> I for one felt Mercer speaks of this particular lack of funding to show a larger problem.
> 
> I have a prob with this statement in particular:
> 
> ...



I agree,

95% of the tasks we (Sappers) complete during Warfighting, we also complete during OOTW. Only the procedures, time appreciation and risks taken to complete the task change (hasty vs deliberate). Ironically, we do more Warfighting training as part of the predeployment training then we would otherwise do during the "quiet time". 

For the most part, the equipment used is identical (a shovel is a shovel, and mine detector a mine detector). My only real gripe is that we do not use the same vehicles oversea's as we do domestically, not that i'd rather an APC in Afganistan, but that is the biggest change for us. 

So that being said, more money is better regardless of what type of training its spent on.


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## 735_winnipeg (16 Jan 2005)

DON'T VOTE LIBERALS NEXT TIME!


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## Armymedic (16 Jan 2005)

You preaching to the converted....

talk to your nieghbours.


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## ArmyRick (16 Jan 2005)

I agree with 2 CDO on this and I already posted what IMO will happen.

The DART fiasco will result in DART's budget being boosted, meanwhile the money will come out of some one else budget. Probably a more usefull unit (DART Has deployed how many times? in how many years? versus any infantry battle group on major deployments?)

There will be no extra money given to the CF out of this affair...


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## Goober (16 Jan 2005)

Speaking of Rick Mercer, he's going to be at the RMC in Kingston on tomorrows show.


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## PPCLI Guy (16 Jan 2005)

ArmyRick said:
			
		

> I agree with 2 CDO on this and I already posted what IMO will happen.
> 
> The DART fiasco will result in DART's budget being boosted, meanwhile the money will come out of some one else budget. Probably a more usefull unit (DART Has deployed how many times? in how many years? versus any infantry battle group on major deployments?)
> 
> There will be no extra money given to the CF out of this affair...



I believe that you will find that the funding for DART (at least its deployment) comes from DFAIT, and not DND


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## Michael OLeary (16 Jan 2005)

Goober said:
			
		

> Speaking of Rick Mercer, he's going to be at the RMC in Kingston on tomorrows show.



http://army.ca/cgi-bin/album.pl?photo=General/mercer_at_rmc30.jpg


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## saint1 (17 Jan 2005)




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## Peace_Keeper (17 Jan 2005)

The january 17th rant was great...


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