Mary Walsh has spent much of her career satirizing Canadian politics. But our politicians are often reluctant to embrace humour as a way of communicating with the public. Mary Walsh talks to NDP MP Peter Stoffer, former Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish and the CBC's Rick Mercer about why it's so difficult for politicians to show a sense of humour, even when the political pay-off can be substantial.

---

Today's special guest host was Mary Walsh.

PART ONE

Satire

It's Friday, April 1st.

Promising an overhaul of the Canada Pension Plan, Michael Ignatieff says he wants a secure retirement option for Canadians.

Currently, it was a good try, but Stephen Harper's still not interested.

This is The Current.

Seniors' Party

We started this segment with a clip from Green Party leader Elizabeth May reacting to news this morning of a new federal political party. We don't know much about it yet. Details are supposed to be unveiled later today. All we know now is that the party says... it is a voice for seniors. And it reportedly has some big names behind it including veteran Canadian actor Mr. Gordon Pinsent. First we had Evan Solomon, host of Power and Politics, on the line from Ottawa.

And sitting across from Mary Walsh in our studio was Gordon Pinsent, the party's new spokesperson.

Humour in Politics - Panel

Speaking of political jokes....when was the last time you laughed out loud during this election campaign? No? Seems like these days our politicians are much more likely to be the butt of jokes than the instigators of them.

The Hill Times -- a weekly newspaper about federal politics -- has just released its annual ranking of MPs according to their sense of humour. And Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff both ranked pretty high ... for worst sense of humour. So this morning, we're asking why it is that so many politicians are unwilling -- or maybe unable -- to show a sense of humour.

To help us sort this out, we were joined by Rick Mercer - the host of The Rick Mercer Report on CBC Television. Former Liberal MP Carolyn Parrish. And Peter Stoffer who is campaigning for re-election for the NDP. He was ranked second on the Hill Times list of MPs with a sense of humour.

*** We continued our panel discussion in Part Two ... shifting gears a bit to look
at whether there's less humour on Parliament Hill than there used to be.