Renowned disability advocate Rick Hansen and Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Dan Hill are the latest Canadians to lend their voices to the Pro Bono Group’s Pro Canada Project, urging consumers to buy Canadian.
Hansen, best known as the “Man in Motion” for his legendary 26-month, 34-country, 40,000-kilometre wheelchair journey around the world, is also the founder of the Rick Hansen Foundation.
Hill has had international hits with his own songs – including 1977 ballad “Sometimes When We Touch” and 1987 Vonda Shephard duet “Can’t We Try.” He secured a Grammy Award in 1996 for his role as co-producer on Celine Dion album Falling Into You, going on to write lyrics for Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys and Reba MacEntire. He was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2021.
Hansen and Hill join an ever-growing list of well-known Canadian talent who’ve lent their voices to the campaign, including singer/songwriters Sarah McLachlan, Chantal Kreviazuk, and Anne Murray, broadcasters Brian Williams, Chris Cuthbert, David Suzuki and Lisa LaFlamme, and comedy stars Rick Mercer, Mark Critch, Colin Mochrie, Deb McGrath, and Ron James, among many others.
With the PSA campaign now in its ninth month, after launching in February at the outset of the Canada-U.S. trade war, Pro Bono Group creative leads Mike Occomore and Larry MacInnis say they continue to hear from participants just how important the initiative is.
“They are certainly passionate about this country,” said Occomore. “Brian Williams told me recently that he continues to hear from people all over the country about his personal Pro Canada message. And when Chris Cuthbert heard it, that’s when he wanted to do his own.”
Occomore said other well-known Canadians are waiting to record their own personal PSA messages in the coming weeks, adding that the campaign is proof of the enduring power of radio. MacInnis recently shared on social media that as he was having breakfast at a local diner, he asked the server why they weren’t serving Heinz ketchup?
“She said ‘We’re buying Canadian, just like the radio says.’ Don’t let anyone ever tell you that radio advertising doesn’t work,” relayed Occomore.
Among the broadcasters continuing to air the campaign are Rogers Sports & Media, Stingray, Bell Media, Local Radio Lab, JAZZ.FM91, Durham Radio, Zoomer Media, My Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), Starboard Communications, Vista Radio, Acadia Broadcasting, Blackburn Media, and Whiteoaks Communications Group.
