Rick Mercer, known as the Canadian Jon Stewart, says Canadians aren’t just polite–they’re dangerously complacent.

“It’s not Stephen Harper’s fault that he loads his budget full of things nobody has heard of or debated,” Mercer said about the last 400-plus page omnibus bill C-38, noting that the bill made hundreds of changes to environmental regulations that most Canadians know little about. “If we don’t react, then we can expect more of the same. Our complacency will be used against us.”

Mercer is the host of The Mercer Report, a weekly series launched in 2004 on the CBC and best known for Mercer’s rants in which he tackles topics ranging from bullying to the Canadian government’s online spying bill.

Rick Mercer explains Everything You Wanted to Know About Canada But Were Afraid to Ask. Source: YouTube.

Asked where he gets the ideas for his rants, Mercer said it’s rare that he watches a newscast without feeling a rant come on.

“Heck, this week we found out that Canada was going to “merge” embassies with the UK,” he said. “Once again this is presented to us as a done deal, no debate, no nothing. Everything we learn about the situation we learn after the fact.”

Mercer, whose top-rated show draws more viewers than any national news broadcast, said that he always gets a kick out of what rants people react to.

“I did a rant about people who don’t know how to use escalators, people who get on elevators before letting the people inside get off first and it went viral all over the world. You never know what will touch a nerve.”

Mercer has “no interest” in having a beer with Mitt Romney

Mercer also weighed in on Mitt Romney’s latest gaffe about the 47 percent of Americans who don’t pay income tax who feel “entitled” to government services and benefits.

“It’s about as offensive as anything I have ever heard,” he said.

“He is talking about senior citizens, the disenfranchised, the unemployed and the underemployed, he is talking about the disabled, he is talking about veterans who have suffered catastrophic injuries fighting a very long war for the United States,” he said.

“I would have no interest in having a beer with that guy.”