Geri Hall, cast member from CBC sketch comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes, got more than she bargained for when she found herself in handcuffs after launching into a new character during a Halifax press conference with Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday.

‘We thought it would be fun to just try and get some potential face time with Harper and ask him what he’s offering the ‘single female voter,” Hall tells Playback Daily from the 22 Minutes production office in Halifax. The crew is currently shooting the 16th season of the hit show.

‘So much of the election campaign is ‘this is what’s happening for corporations, and this is what we’re offering families,’ but the single girl can’t get any love!’ Hall adds.

Hall says she was ‘quietly behaving’ when Harper was giving his speech, but jumped up when she sensed the press conference was coming to an end.

‘I said ‘Excuse me, Mr. Harper… I just have a question from the single female voter,” Hall recalls. ‘But before I could even spit that out, I was very quickly removed in a flurry.’

Hall was promptly cuffed in the hallway of the Marriott Hotel by RCMP security detail, but not before she yelled a few jokes back into the room to the tune of ‘I love you Stephen Harper. I want to love you!’

Hall jokes that security was asking her the kinds of questions ‘I’ve only ever seen on Law & Order.’

‘It was unbelievable. For a 125-pound girl who was wearing control-top [pantyhose] at the time… I’m not sure what they thought I was going to do,’ she says, laughing.

Harper later granted Hall a one-on-one interview when security realized who she was.

‘By then he and I were both a little flustered… it had been more of a morning that any of us had expected,’ she says.

Hall says the incident will likely be incorporated into the first episode of the new 22 Minutes season, which airs Sept. 30 on CBC.

All kidding aside, Hall does have concerns over the recent Tory cuts to cultural programs.

‘Obviously I make my living doing this. We need the arts and need funding to keep our culture alive,’ she says.