Politics & Power Quote by Rick Mercer

Mercer skewers Canadian election-season theater with the precision of someone who’s spent decades translating Ottawa into punchlines. The setup is the ritual: Liberals “heading into an election” suddenly discovering their principles at “the last minute.” That timing is the tell. He’s not arguing policy; he’s calling out the choreography of a party that treats progressive conviction as a seasonal costume, pulled from the closet when the polls tighten.

The line “We know there’s people out there that want to vote NDP” lands like an aside whispered by a party operative who thinks they’re being candid. Mercer’s joke is that the Liberals recognize the moral and ideological gravity the NDP can hold for left-leaning voters, then pivot to a kind of patronizing benediction: “and God love you.” It’s faux warmth masking strategic contempt. The phrase turns sincere democratic choice into something quaint, like cheering on your kid’s impractical dream before steering them toward the “realistic” option.

The subtext is vote-splitting anxiety, a uniquely Canadian pressure point in a first-past-the-post system where “strategic voting” becomes a civic hobby and a recurring source of resentment. Mercer implies the Liberals’ endgame isn’t coalition-building or persuasion; it’s emotional blackmail with a smile: you can flirt with the NDP, but when it counts, come home and be responsible.

It works because it captures a familiar national dynamic in one conversational breath: progressivism framed as aspiration, Liberal pragmatism sold as adulthood, and comedy used as the only honest language left for people tired of being managed.