ParticipACTION
ParticipACTION is a national non-profit organization, originally launched as a Canadian government program in the 1970s, to promote healthy living and physical fitness. It shut down due to financial cutbacks in 2001, but was revived on February 19, 2007 with a grant of $5 million from the Federal Government.[1][2]
ParticipACTION emerged from Sport Participation Canada, a non-profit private company formed on July 12, 1971. Lester B. Pearson chaired the board while Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien served as president. In 1972, the company was nationalized by then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau to battle exorbitant health care costs. The resulting government program was renamed ParticipACTION.
ParticipACTION is well known for its television public service announcements and segments such as Body Break during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. A 1973 commercial, comparing the health of a 30-year-old Canadian to a 60-year-old Swede, started a national discussion on the state of physical education in Canada.
Body Break
Body Break is a series of ninety 90-second television programs dedicated to informing television audiences of ways to "keep fit and have fun". Funded in part by ParticipACTION, the programs are hosted by Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod and air regularly on Canadian television. The programs are designed to briefly introduce tips for healthy living to a television audience.
Both Hal and Joanne are accomplished athletes with backgrounds in sports medicine and nutrition. Johnson, a native of Toronto, Ontario, was an all-star baseball player while he attended the University of Colorado on athletic scholarship, and led the Big 8 conference in home runs, RBIs, and batting average. He was drafted into Major League Baseball by the Cincinnati Reds, but opted instead to finish his business degree. After a series of successful ventures in the business world, he decided he would be better off as a broadcaster in Canada.
McLeod, from Moscow, Russia, was named to several Canadian national teams, and nominated as Canadian Athlete of the Year. She was asked to appear on several television programs as the resident fitness expert, and eventually met Hal Johnson. (McLeod should not be confused with the professional figure skating coach, known for coaching Emanuel Sandhu and William Bridel.)
In 2001, when ParticipACTION shut down, Body Break was kept alive and still can be watched on CTV.
The two hosts of Body Break married in the late 1990s, having kept their relationship secret from the public for several years. Hal Johnson tragically died November 10th 2010 from a heart attack. [3]
References
- ^ "$5M to bring back ParticipACTION exercise program". CBC News. 19 February 2007. Retrieved 2007-02-19.
- ^ "Canada's New Government Re-Launches ParticipACTION". Government of Canada. 19 February 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-03-23. Retrieved 2007-02-19.
- ^ Body Break Couple's Marriage Secret
External links
- ParticipACTION
- Healthy Canadians - federal government portal, accessed 19 February 2007
- The ParticipACTION archive project
- CBC Digital Archives – Getting Physical: Canada's Fitness Movement
- Legendary fitness program is back in the game
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