In Saturday’s Globe and Mail, Parks Canada was prominently featured in the Travel section.  Celebrating its 100th year, Parks Canada takes care of 42 national parks, 167 national historic sites and 4 national marine conservation areas.  And to commemorate this birthday, a series of short films and documentaries are being aired on Discovery World HD over the coming months.  Called The National Parks Project, it will feature 52 Canadian musicians including the likes of Sam Roberts, Sarah Harmer, Shad and Matt Mays.  Viewers will get a glimpse of some of these parks with the bonus of hearing some great music that’s created in them by these artists.

It’s a fantastic idea and it’s refreshing to see public figures promoting something worthwhile.  I start questioning how the world turns when I see Kobe Bryant firing a semi-automatic and Jimmy Kimmel with a bazooka in his hands for the latest Call of Duty commercial.  So the fact that some well known Canadian artists can perhaps hook some folks on our amazing backyard is certainly a breath of fresh air.

Cape Breton Highlands National Park (photo courtesy of Declan McCullagh Photography)

In fact, to promote getting youth outside, I was thinking about calling up my old buddy Justin to see whether he’d run with me for a day.  Oh ya, Justin Bieber that is.  Imagine how many tweens we could get hooked on going outside if little JB said it was so!  For that hockey crowd, I thought Ron Maclean running with me for a bit might get a few off the couch.  For the politically inclined, Justin Trudeau might be able to sway a few into the great outdoors.  And for the university crowd, how about Rick Mercer?  I can only imagine the shenanigans he and I could have running on the Trans Canada together!  Or Margaret Atwood or Mike Myers or Sarah McLaughlin… Heck, I’d even roll out the red carpet for Ben Mulroney if he brought eTalk with him!  Hmmm.  On second thought…

Right or wrong, public figures have an uncanny ability to influence.  Kudos to Parks Canada for snagging some great musicians to promote some great wilderness that we should all spend a little more time in.  Drawing attention to these parks will hopefully get more youth (and adults!) into them.  And even if kids can’t find Mickey Mouse, maybe, just maybe – they’ll find a million other things that make our parks a place “where dreams come true”!