Video: Canadian comedian has hilarious take on the Welland Canal

If you’re Canadian, there’s probably little need to explain who Rick Mercer is.

A comedian, TV personality, political satirist and author all rolled up into one person, Mercer has viewers in stitches over the years with his TV show Rick Mercer Report, which ran on CBC from 2004 to 2018.

In the “Mercer Report” or “RMR” as most of us paraphrased it, Mercer would seek out Canadian landmarks, politicians or the latest fad and put his humourous spin on a subject that, well, didn’t seem to be fodder for comedy.

One of those landmarks was the Welland Canal through which Mercer hitched a ride with the freighter Whitefish Bay back in 2013. As usual, he took a somewhat mundane activity (though many would love to be on a boat in the canal) and made it grin-worthy.

However, as is Mercer’s wont, it’s also full of interesting facts such as the fact that they were in a 78 foot wide freighter going through an 80-foot lock – not a lot of room for error.

Not mentioned in this RMR, this is the fourth Welland Canal connected Lake Erie to Lake Ontario that’s been built. The first was back in 1829, one that had a staggering 40 locks, compared to eight for the present canal.

On average, over 8,000 ships come through the canal every year, carrying 40 million tons of cargo. But let’s hear the funnyman explain how the individual locks work.