ebay liberal leader kit,rick mercer

this needs no introduction ...

Rick Mercer is auctioning off a Liberal leadership kit on EBay in the hopes of enticing someone - anyone - to take on the job.
Tuesday, March 07, 2006

TORONTO (CP) - Since Liberals willing to run for the federal party's leadership appear to be rarer than three-headed rats, satirist Rick Mercer is auctioning off a Liberal leadership kit on EBay in the hopes of enticing someone - anyone - to take on the job.

"The leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada is not the prize that it once was," Mercer said Tuesday night on his CBC show Rick Mercer Report.

"Frank McKenna doesn't want it. John Manley is not interested. They can't even get Allan Rock to return their calls. This leaves front-runners like Belinda Stronach and Bob Rae, two people whose strongest asset is that they come from other parties."

The kit includes a 15-minute consultation and conference call with the writers of CBC's Rick Mercer Report to help craft a campaign message. As an added incentive, the winning bidder also gets free use of the show's colour printer "for posters and stuff."

To discourage vanity candidates, Mercer said he decided to start the bidding at a whopping $15.

Within a couple of hours, 47 people had posted bids, the highest coming in at more than $1,900 Cdn.

"If you're looking for a change of pace, consider a career as leader of the Liberal party," Mercer offered. "Full or part time, they'll take what they can get.

Mercer has used the Internet before in his ongoing campaign to mock politicians of all stripes. During the 2000 election campaign, he launched an online petition to have then-Canadian Alliance leader Stockwell Day change his first name to Doris.

The drive attracted hundreds of thousands of signatures, but was unsuccessful in convincing the politician to take on the moniker of the perky blonde chanteuse of the 1950s.