SG: We want to turn to politics quickly. Is it true that Jane Stewart gave you $500,000 for fresh donuts for the donut shop set?

MARY WALSH: Of course, because Jane was just giving everybody $500,000. But what I thought was interesting about that is, if you talk to small business people across this country, their major complaint is government bureaucracy and everything done in triplicate and quadruple and everything and there's the Liberal government, they start giving money out like crazy to nobody with no paper trail, no anything, exactly as small business has always asked for and the Liberals are in there representing those guys who have been moaning since I was a girl about how every time you approach the government you're lost in a sea of bureaucracy. The Liberals go in and get rid of the bureaucracy totally and everybody… well, it wasn't that big a deal really, was it?

SG: Is it true that Paul Martin's your da?

MARY WALSH: Yes, he is my father.
 

I would suggest that all Canadians go to bed with a Reform person as opposed to, like, putting them on the floor of the House

SG: what kind of fatherly advice has he given you?

MARY WALSH: He hasn't really given me any fatherly advice, but he's shown me the way to turn against your father, he's done, I don't know what he's done to his mother, but he's certainly destroyed his father's, he's made a good attempt at destroying his father's work anyway.

SG: Do you have a message you'd like to send to Ralph Klein and Jean Chretien about health care?

MARY WALSH: Well, I already talked to Jean Chretien about it, but what is Ralph Klein up to? What does he want? I think he's just drinking too much. I think he should just get off the liquor. Personally, Ralph Klein, cuz he really has that kind of, now, this is the fourth time he's trying to drive through this private health care legislation; nobody wants it, not even the people of Alberta and he's still doing it. He's just like one of those drunks. He's got a bad hangover. I don't even know if he drinks, but just to me, it appears to me that I'm not making any kind of libelous statements about Mr. Klein and his relationship with a scotch bottle.
 

In bed with the other politicians and Mary Walsh, MP Elsie Wayne said, "Oh, look, oh I didn't know it was that kind of thing, I would have brought my pussy." She knew exactly what she was doing, and she said it about 5 times.

SG: Who's the most fun politician you've ever accosted?

MARY WALSH: It's not very much fun, anyway, because it's too nerve-racking, you know, because you just get that, you know… you don't want them to be fun anyway, because that just gets in the way, you just want them to shut up.
  I guess that the Reform people are more fun to go to bed with than they are to vote for, so I would suggest that all Canadians go to bed with a Reform person as opposed to, like, putting them in the thing. Because they're much more fun in bed than they are on the floor of the House. And then, Svend Robinson, was very outrageous.
  You know who's really outrageous too, in a very odd, kind of cup of tea, New Brunswick kind of way is Elsie Wayne who keeps talking about, she was looking at, we didn't put it in the show, but, Audrey had brought some stuffed animals with her, and Elsie went, oh, look, oh I didn't know it was that kind of thing, I would have brought my pussy. She did it absolutely, she knew exactly what she was doing, and she said it about 5 times. It's very odd.
 

There was always that notion that we were a country that, with all our faults, thought everyone deserved health care and education, that that was a bottom line. So I just don't get what Harris and Klein are doing.

SG: What concerns you the most about what you see happening in Canada?

MARY WALSH: I'm worried about health care, of course, because that's the number one thing that we all say all the time. You know, it's funny to think about how do you define your country, I guess the Americans have the flag and stuff and we kind of have health care and you know, that's what we always think about when we think about, because I used to, being a Canadian, because we came in late, 1949, and I was born in '52, we'd only been Canadian for three years, and nobody was that fond of Canadians, and, but there was always that to hold on to, that kind of notion that we were a country that, with all our faults, thought that everyone deserved health care and education, that that was a bottom line, so I just don't get it.
  I don't get what Harris is doing and I don't understand why people, I mean I sometimes understand on a very personal level why you don't want to see other people getting away with stuff, why you sometimes feel like I'm working my bag off and there's that person there who's doing nothing - why are they getting everything that I'm getting? That's not fair, right? But then when you take it a little bit further and you think about it a little, it's you don't want Ralph Klein and Mike Harris and everybody in tearing the house down.

At the conclusion of the interview, Straight Goods presented MARY WALSH with a new, battery-powered sword for Marg Delahunty to use in her fight for truth, beauty and justice.

[Tape: Lots of sword sounds]

SG: Thank you, MARY WALSH!

MARY WALSH: Great guys, and good luck.

Want to read what Mary has to say about the web, her show and her future? See Part 1 of this exclusive Straight Goods interview.