Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Canada: Is the Liberal leadership a Joke?

Charlatan · 03-09-2006, 07:54 AM

Rick Mercer is at it again.

This time he has put a "Liberal Leadership Kit" up for sale on E Bay. I find it interesting that so many of the front runners dropped out of the race so early and given the tarnished reputation of the party after the Sponsorship Scandal, who would want the job?

I am thinking this sort of kicking the corpse while it's down is a good thing for the party. Look what it did for the Reform party.

LINK

Quote:

Not-so-serious bids flood spoof auction Satirist's eBay idea for beer money taking off
GLORIA GALLOWAY

OTTAWA -- Apparently the Liberal leadership is worth something after all.

Asserting that the top job in the federal party that held power in Ottawa for the past 13 years is "not the prize that it once was," Canadian satirist Rick Mercer told his television audience Tuesday night that he had put a Liberal leadership kit up for sale on eBay.

The kit includes a 15-minute conference call with the staff of The Rick Mercer Report to help the winning bidder craft a campaign message and the use of the show's colour printer for "photos and such. Ink cartridge is running low on magenta."

By late afternoon yesterday -- 72 bids later -- the kit that drew an opening bid of $15 bid had garnered an offer of more than $24,000. A scant two hours later, after 101 bids, the bidding was up to $16-million. The auction closes Tuesday.

The concept began over beer with some of the show's writers as well as a few Liberal and Conservative friends.

"It was a big, huge argument about the Liberal leadership," Mr. Mercer explained yesterday. "At one point, one of the Tories said: 'What's it worth, anyway? Somebody should put it on eBay. It's probably not worth $200.' So I thought: 'Well, I'll steal that idea.' And I put it on eBay and we thought we'd make about $200 or $300, which would go for our beer money."

Clearly, Mr. Mercer and his pals can't spend $24,000, or whatever the final total turns out to be, on beer.

"We have jobs to do and the productivity of the writing staff would be affected," he said. "So, if in fact there is a substantial sum raised, we will indeed ensure that it will go to a charity." But he won't specify which charity because, well, he is concerned that the winner might not pay up.

"I am concerned that the people who are bidding for the leadership of the Liberal Party, they could be shirkers," Mr. Mercer said. "They are essentially making a promise that they will pay this money and, like a lot of politicians, they may later break that promise."

But, as he pointed out, no one can place a bid of more than $18,000 on eBay without registering a credit card with the on-line auction company.

There are about a dozen potential candidates for the Liberal leadership, including former cabinet ministers Belinda Stronach, Joe Volpe, Scott Brison and Denis Coderre. Mr. Mercer said he did not know whether any of them were among the bidders for his kit. When the bidding sat at a meagre $24,000, he joked, "if it immediately jumps to $2-million, I'm guessing that Belinda's in."