I just got back from competing on the bloggers team on CBC’s Test the Nation. Ever since I was a little boy, I’ve dreamed of appearing on Test the Nation so this was quite the thrill.

After arriving at the studio this afternoon, I walked down the hall of a thousand Rick Mercer pictures into the holding room. There, I took pictures of the celebrity look alike team and chatted with the bloggers – as you can imagine, this involved a lot of talk about the awesomeness of Google analytics and the new Star Trek teaser. A few of the more adventurous bloggers also tried in vain to land fake Paris Hilton’s phone number (I suspect it’d be a fake number).

After a lengthy wait, we entered a CBC studio designed in a way they thought the future would look back in the 50s. I was seated in the back row (too many Mansbridge jokes on this blog I guess) but, being a huge Myron Thompson fan, I’ve always dreamed of being a no-name backbencher so I can’t complain.

We were instructed to always look excited and to cheer wildly even if we got bored but, having attended many Stephane Dion rallies, I’m already an pretty good at that. The celebrity team captains then entered. Now, by “celebrity” I mean “Canadian celebrity” so it was the usual collection of Little Gas Station on the Prairie cast members. Also on the panel was the Canadian “Randy“, the hot cylon, and the blogging team captain, Samantha Bee (who I guess is stuck doing stuff like this until the writers strike ends).

As the game show went on, I was feeling good about the bloggers‘ chances but questions lingered. Could we win without Google? Would Tricia Helfer’s legs cause the blogging geeks to lose their concentration? What would be the worst pun of the evening? (my vote: “the chefs have whipped themselves up into a frenzy“)

Finally, the moment of truth came. Brent Bambury went to the “nerve centre” (which consisted of an intern and her lap top) to get the results and…all those years of social rejection paid off and the bloggers were crowned champions!!! The most prestigious trophy in Canadian trivia was ours! Samantha Bee took top celebrity and blogger Rick Spence had the top score, making it a clean sweep.