Mavros Whissell is a Sudbury-based geologist and land technicianWhen I watched Canadian comedian Mike Myers say to prime minister Mark Carney, “…let me ask you, Mr. Prime Minister, will there always be a Canada?” I couldn’t help but cringe.“There will always be a Canada.” Mark Carney emphatically reassured, as if he had the power to back any such claim.History, of course, proves that not a single empire, nation, or state has yet managed to evade the ravages of calamity, war or even a very gradual change.But apparently, Mark Carney has the power to render Canada eternal..Does anyone actually buy this crap? And more to the point why is Mike Myers, of all people, peddling such a ridiculous endorsement of Carney, like he’s petitioning some kind of undying demi-god? Is Carney our one and only saviour? One who can maintain Canada’s administrative borders in perpetuity?What absolute stupidity.But why did it have to be Mike Myers? Why would he involve himself in something so ridiculous it can only be viewed as baseless propaganda? I can think of so many other things he’s done that are so much more meaningful and honest, even if they were silly.Whether he wants to be or not, Mike Myers will always be a brilliant comedian in my mind..In my teenage years, during the 1990s, Myers’ sketches on the set of Saturday Night Live (SNL) were the stuff of legend. My siblings and I would run aimlessly about our living room, boisterously imitating his Scottish character Stuart Rankin, the proprietor of a knick-knack store called All Things Scottish.As recorded bagpipes blasted in place of a door chime, Rankin would greet entering customers by yelling, “Welcome to All Things Scottish. If it’s no’ Scottish, IT’S CRAP!”There’s also Myers’ lesser known skit Middle-Aged Man, which I now appreciate from having achieved said milestone. I don’t know if I recognized Middle-Aged Man’s idiosyncrasies when I was a teen, but they’re hilarious to watch now on YouTube. Everything from his bad back, to his thick glasses, to his inability to run for more than 10 seconds.Middle-Aged Man is a spoof of a typical comic book superhero, and he’s terribly insecure. For that reason, he randomly shouts at others, “Hey! You’re looking at my gut, aren’t ya? I’m workin’ on it!” His only real “power” is to solve problems that are otherwise common sense issues. He argues that despite his diminishing sex-drive, “I know where all my appliance warranties are!”.Myers’ comedic genius lies not only in his ability to step outside himself, but also in finding what many of us judge as ridiculous or over-the-top about the characters he portrays. And his characters often rely on blatant stereotypes. It’s that essentially normative perspective that makes Myers’ brand of humour work — it connects with everyday people.SNL, however, typically connects with a much less ideologically inclusive group. SNL is a progressive/activist show, and there are many times when it’s overtly aimed at influencing the cultural and political discourse in the US.SNL’s effect on people has even been scientifically evaluated. Some sketches were so poignant they significantly influenced the US electoral process, like ones inducing the so-called “Tina Fey Effect,” as published in The Public Opinion Quarterly:“Using panel data of young adults, we find evidence that exposure to Tina Fey’s impersonation of Sarah Palin’s performance in the 2008 vice-presidential debate on Saturday Night Live is associated with changes in attitudes toward her selection as VP candidate and presidential vote intentions. These effects are most pronounced among self-identified Independents and Republicans.”.Mike Myers returned to SNL in March 2025, impersonating none other than Trump’s right-hand man, Elon Musk. The show’s cold open was a parody of the meeting between Trump, Vance and Zelenskyy, crashed by a chainsaw-bearing Musk. It made foolish caricatures of all the right-leaning individuals involved. Any Tina Fey effect from this had no election to influence, of course, but the burning of Teslas across the US has somehow become normalized.At the end of the episode, Myers appeared along with the entire SNL cast. He was wearing a black shirt displaying Doug Ford’s “Canada is not for sale” meme. In addition, he mouthed the words “elbows up,” while pointing to his lifted elbow, referencing Gordie Howe’s famous technique. This has become a rallying cry for left-leaning politicians across Canada.Following his SNL return, Myers appeared on a commercial with Mark Carney on March 23 endorsing the central banker for PM. Together, they called for “elbows up.”The dialogue between the two focuses on how Canadian they really are, but there are some much more pertinent similarities. Both are officers of the Order of Canada. Both are millionaires many times over. Both personally know and admire Justin Trudeau.Myers endorsement of Carney overlooked an irony not lost on Canadians. While Myers may feel that by keeping our elbows up, we can somehow stop from being run over by a Zamboni, that’s not the message many Canadians understood. Instead, we saw a couple of rich, entitled Canadians — ones who move about the globe with relative ease — prioritize a fear of Trump over the everyday fight for survival that most Canadians were enduring long before tariffs came.It's worth noting that Middle-Aged Man, that frail but astute older male, would have the common sense to see right through this fearmongering and warn people about it. That’s assuming that his sidekick, Drinking Buddy, played by the late Chris Farley, didn’t convince him it was “beer o’clock” first.Myers humour remains a success because it accessed the common sensibilities of everyday people and not just a privileged class. We all know Myers is a Canadian, but he chooses to defend Canada and its administration as he defines it.That’s one perspective.Instead, he could choose to defend the many Canadians who live in Canada by focusing on the problems we’ve had over the last 10 years. Problems that will almost certainly outlast Trump’s tariffs and are a product of Carney’s influence in the Liberal Party of Canada.Mavros Whissell is a Sudbury-based geologist and land technician.
