If you didn't watch CBC's The National on Thursday night, you missed comedian Rick Mercer's amazing rant about government House leader John Baird.

Yesterday, Baird dismissed Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and NDP leader Jack Layton as "Toronto elites" because of their support for the federal long-gun registry. (You may recall that in 2009, Baird told Toronto to "fuck off.")

The National ran a cheeky news report on the whole "Toronto elites" incident and brilliantly asked Mercer for comment.

Unfortunately, it's not possible to embed CBC news videos, so here's what Mercer had to say about Baird:

"He has a chauffeur! He's beating people up for being elite?"

and:

"You wanna know what elite is? It's John Baird in a tuxedo, going to the National Arts Centre with the prime minister's wife on his arm, complaining that the food is not good enough. That's John Baird right there in a nutshell."

>> Watch the segment at cbc.ca (fast forward to 2:10 min).

And with that, I leave you with this Rick Mercer Report classic, the "John Baird Home Alarm System":



