Well, we can dream, can’t we?

Canada has a vast, dark intelligence network as befits a superpower, and valiant efforts to save the world just get thwarted by bungling characters and sloppy execution.

That’s the premise behind the upcoming CBC spy-fi comedy InSecurity, from Corner Gas creative Kevin White, Virginia Thompson and Robert de Lint.

“It’s a bit of a comic book world we’re trying to create. Why not?,” says Kevin White, of Company Name Here Productions, about the 13-episode spoof of the popular secret agent genre.

“Canada can save the world, with permission to screw up on our own. No parents are watching,” he adds.

InSecurity, while shot mostly in Regina this past summer, is set in Ottawa and portrays a fictional National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), who keep Canada safe-ish.

Thompson and de Lint approached White with the idea for a Canadian secret agent comedy, which is ironic considering his mother was an espionage agent, having worked for the Canadian Security Establishment, listening in on Cold War chatter.

“Her work as a communications officer was quite tedious, going through transcripts of pilots talking to base ships, and trying to figure out which were Russian ships,” White recalls.

It turns out much Canadian spy work is equally unglamorous, with only brief bursts of adrenaline and excitement when bad guys are nabbed.

But TV being TV, White and his team of writers portray Canadian spy work anything but tedious.

The series is mostly high tech and glossy like James Bond films, and filled with flawed characters that recall Maxwell Smart and Inspector Clouseau.

“It’s not that they’re incompetent, it’s just that their characters get in the way of doing good work,” White points out.

Each episode has super agent Alex Cranston, played by Natalie Lisinska, and her team of spy misfits attempting to dismantle the terror plans of Canada’s most dreaded enemies, only to quickly botch the mission for laughs.

For example, like Fox’s 24, there’s torture of captured prisoners.

Only in the first episode of the CBC comedy, Alex Cranston is kidnapped and tortured by The Doctor, who turns out to be Randy, a nerd from her past.

“It’s comedy. You have to keep it from getting too dark and crossing the edge into becoming painful,” White said of normally inhumane TV and movie torture sequences.

Character-driven comedy isn’t new to White, given his work on Corner Gas and now Dan For Mayor.

What’s new with InSecurity are action packed sequences, including stunts and staged fights on high-tech sets and car chases that TV viewers expect of popular shows like 24 and CSI.

The problem was, no one in the InSecurity writers’ room had written fight scenes before, and there was no Fox or CBS budget for slick execution.

“A punch to the face is fine. But flipping someone is difficult. You need a mat and you can’t shoot wide,” White recalled.

To keep costs down, White had characters drop out of a frame during fight sequences, or the NISA team will take down bad guys off screen, as much as on.

“Before we were just doing jokes in a gas station,” he said of moving from Corner Gas to heavy duty action sequences.

InSecurity also stars William DeVry as a playboy agent, Remy Girard as a wily veteran often caught napping on the job, and Matthew MacFadzean as a Jack Bauer wannabe.

Rounding out the InSecurity cast is Grace Lynn Kung and Richard Yearwood.

InSecurity is to air Tuesday nights on the CBC at 8:30 p.m. from January 4.