Canada’s genial funnyman wasn’t without a cause for long.

Last month, Rick Mercer, the former spokerperson for the One-Tonne Challenge — a climate change awareness program cancelled by Stephen Harper’s government earlier this year — teamed up with Belinda Stronach as the main voices behind Spread the Net, a campaign to fight malaria in Africa. For every $10 donation, the organization will send one insecticide-treated bednet to a child in Africa.

The nets keep mosquitoes, which spread malaria, at bay, and work for up to five years. The mosquito-repelling bednets were another brainwave of United Nations development specialist Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, who has bold visions of simple technologies aimed at making a big splash in Africa. The Varsity caught up with Mercer on the phone last week.

The Varsity: Spread the Net was sort of an accident in terms of your involvement with
Belinda Stronach and Dr. Jeffrey Sachs in terms of not really knowing
exactly who he was up until the trip…

Rick Mercer: Well I knew he was an economist and I had certainly read about him and a few things by him but I had never actually sat down and read his work. But I certainly knew who he was. When I was interviewing Belinda back when she was a Conservative I had remembered when she ran for the leadership that Dr.
Jeffrey Sachs was listed as an adviser to her campaign. So I was curious as to how this relationship came about and that’s how the conversation was initiated. She said that at some point she was going go to Africa with him and I was talking about going to Afghanistan for a trip. So she said “next time you go to Afghanistan give me a call” and I said, “next time you go to
Africa give me a call” and then she did. It was probably about a year later and then off I went.

In your blog you mention how you didn’t know the exact itinerary pretty
much until you got to the airport?

Right up until the last minute. All I knew was that I had a list as long as my arm of needles I had to get and concoctions I had to take just in case in you went to certain places. We were following Sachs whose schedule was quite loose and was subject to change at any moment like going from Rwanda to Uganda so I just basically figured I was in Belinda’s hands.

So what exactly did you pack?

When I was at the airport I was a friend of the fellow who was her executive assistant and policy adviser. He was the only other person going on the trip. When I arrived and we were waiting at the airport my luggage was
substantially larger than his and then I started to become panicked about having more luggage than Veronica Lodge. Thankfully Belinda’s luggage was larger than mine so I didn’t have to suffer that indignity.

Was there anything in particular that you wished you had packed?

Well, I wouldn’t say so, although I remember I left Toronto and I was dying because it was in the middle of the heat [wave] at something like 36 ºC. Everywhere we went in Africa was cooler than Toronto and the air was cleaner too, until we got the Port of Djibouti where we got like, a blast of hot
air. I’m part seal pup so I almost died there.

You also mentioned on your blog the contrast between a village in Uganda
with the president’s house…

It’s the contrast that strikes you, especially when you’re a Westerner. It’s
one thing to be in the fancy king’s palace because we’ve all been in fancy rooms before. It’s the village where the term “village” doesn’t even really
apply, with thousands of people spread over square miles and there’s literally nothing there. Any preconceived notions about a village are thrown out the window. But this was a Millennium village at the time and so Sachs applies what he considers to be solutions on a very small level on one
village at a time as an experiment that is hopefully going to be emulated on a grander scale. I know that village and two years later it now has 40 market stalls, they’ve fixed their roads and there’s a vehicle that can bring people to the hospital or goods to market. There’s even cellular service so people can price their goods, and an irrigation system. People should really read about these Millennium villages and when you look at their costs they’re really cost effective to sponsor.

In addition to being the national co-chair for this with Belinda you’ve also done the One-Tonne Challenge and the national spokesperson for Relay for Life. When people ask you to do a charity like Casey House, do people approach you or do you ask…

I try to do as much as I can, but I’m cognizant of the fact that you can’t do everything because otherwise that weakens any impact you may have.

So how do you choose which ones you do get involved in when you can?

It’s really all about scheduling. The Spread the Net program was something I really felt I had to do. When I was there I learned so much about Malaria, found out how it was easily preventable and the fact that the best method of protecting children against it is a very tangible, old fashioned method: a mosquito net. The fact that we can, through Spread the Net and our partnership with UNICEF, guarantee that for ten bucks a net will be distributed for free and people will be given the proper instructions on how
it’s installed, how it works and cared for, etc, is pretty phenomenal. Two or three children sleep under these nets so you’re talking about saving two or three lives for ten bucks for up to five years. It’s very tangible, cost effective and hands-on and it’s something all Canadians can support.

What would the goal for Canada in terms of donations?

I know the goal right now is to raise enough money to purchase 500,000 treated nets which I think is very doable.

Has there been a lot of media coverage regarding this campaign besides
your show and the CBC?

There was at the Millennium Goals Conference in Montreal, especially after I wrapped Belinda in the net. We got our picture in the paper a lot. A lot of different groups are coming to us about it from areas we didn’t expect. Church groups and private enterprises see it as a great thing to do with their employees. Some companies are talking about matching their employee
donations net for net. The fact that its in ten dollar increments I think is the secret to the success of the program.

There were a lot of skeptics after the Boxing Day Tsunami in terms of fake
charities so a lot of people are asking about guarantees…

People should be asking questions. It’s why we partnered with UNICEF, who are guaranteeing these nets will be distributed for free and they will reach their destination. The other great thing about the program is that there’s no cash being delivered anywhere. If you want to take the cynical approach, no one is going to take nets and put them in a Swiss bank account-these are actual nets being distributed that only have one real purpose and they only
have one real use. No one is going to put a net in a safety deposit box.