The high-flying adventures of Rick Mercer with local air cadets are being broadcast nationally tonight.
Producers and editors for this week's The Rick Mercer Report completed the final touches on the half-hour show yesterday and it will be broadcast tonight and this Friday at 8 p.m. on CBC, said David McCaughna, publicist for the show.
Along with the five-minute segment with the 15 cadets from 185 Olds Squadron, along with seven from 903 Strathmore Squadron, that was filmed Aug. 26 at the Netook Gliding Centre, the show will also have a zip-lining feature with federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair that was filmed in Petty Harbour, N.L.
The 42-year-old national comedic icon said the segment with the cadets is special for him as he once served with the sea cadets in Newfoundland.
“This is something I wanted to do for a while. I am familiar with the cadet movement and not a lot of people are familiar with it,” Mercer told the Albertan. “This was a perfect shoot for us. It was a beautiful location and it was a chance to meet interesting and fun people. The cadets were amazing.”
It was also a chance for the well-travelled CBC television star to try something new. He had never before flown in a glider.
“It was fantastic but it was tricky. I had consulted with a number of pilots and they all told me that gliding was the safest type of flying out there,' said Mercer. “It was stunningly beautiful but it was nerve-wracking. There was no engine.”
But he quickly added that once his two 20-minute flights began at Netook he knew everything would turn out just fine.
“Absolutely. Any time I do anything dangerous I make sure I find the best people possible,” said Mercer, who was a passenger on the glider with an 18-year-old pilot from Edmonton. “I'm not ageist. I felt totally comfortable with the young pilot.”
In the meantime, officials with the cadet movement from across Canada consider the Netook Gliding Centre shoot a tremendous coup, and one that will dramatically boost its profile coast to coast.
“Rick is a great supporter of the cadet movement. He has a great affinity towards us,” said Stan Monkman, the Air Cadet League of Canada's director of public relations for the Alberta provincial committee. “We've had comments from all across Canada that this is a real coup for us. Now they want our secret in getting him out here so quickly.”
Locally, members of 185 Olds Squadron are excited they will finally get to see the segment they have been waiting for since the Aug. 26 filming.
“Especially the kids who were interviewed by Rick, to see if they will be on the air or not,” said Capt. Joy Cavin, an officer with the local squadron. She said cadets have been enthusiastically filling up their Facebook pages with comments and photos since Mercer's visit.
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the kids and the officers,” said Cavin. “We are used to seeing this sort of publicity in Ontario but it is nice to see it the other way around.”
