Newly launched group wants all Canadians to get outside at the same time

Martin Sampson would like you to step outside next Saturday.

Don’t worry; he’s not challenging you to a fight. Sampson is the CEO of the Canadian Parks and Recreation Association and one of the creators of a new initiative called Everyone Outdoors Together.

The plan is simple: On the third Saturday in July — the 18th this year, and not coincidentally National Parks Day — Canadians from every part of the country and all walks of life are invited to get out in the great outdoors (or even just the backyard) and enjoy it.

“Everyone Outdoors Together is about reclaiming connection to each other,” is how the website puts it , “creating a shared moment where millions of people in Canada pause, step outside, and witness something beautiful together. It’s a new ritual for a country that needs it, a reminder that our best moments happen when we’re present, outdoors, and together.”

The idea was born of a chance phone call last year between Sampson and Jennie McCaffrey, VP of Health and Education at B.C. Parks Foundation and PaRx. The first organization’s name is pretty self-explanatory, but PaRx — short for parks prescriptions — is an initiative to get doctors and other health-care professionals to literally prescribe time outdoors as a therapy to benefit their patients’ bodies and minds.

During the call, Sampson was on a paddleboard at his cottage in Lac-Sainte-Marie, north of Ottawa. McCaffrey, it turned out, was in a canoe on Alpha Lake Park in Whistler, B.C.

“That led us to think, what if we did something, which we originally named the Great Canadian Sunset Paddle, and the idea would simply be to get a bunch of people to enjoy the moment that we enjoyed during that conversation,” he says.

“And we realized that just doing a paddle would not be as inclusive as we would like. So, over time … we evolved the idea to simply, why don’t we imagine if all Canadians stepped outdoors and shared a sunset or evening or midnight sun moment with their friends and family, and the land and water we share. Imagine the platform that could create to talk about all the things that we really care about.”

Says McCaffrey: “We hope to recreate that same feeling for people right across Canada in any way that makes sense for them. And that’s what’s exciting too, is that it’s not about having to get out on a paddle board, it’s about just stepping outside your door or rolling outside your door or going for a run, or however you want to experience that moment outdoors.”

Samson refers to this year’s event as a soft launch, but he has big plans and high hopes. “By 2028 I would love this to be cemented in the Canadian cultural calendar as just something that people do that allows them to enjoy the outdoors with their friends and family,” he says. “I never let perfect get in the way of good enough, so we pushed it out there, and we’re getting an unbelievable response.”

The group has been reaching out to health groups, parks groups and more to drum up attention for the idea.

“I’ve always approached this program from the vision that we want to get to a place where nature is a social norm, and getting outside is a social norm,” says McCaffrey. “So the same way that we all brush our teeth, we all put a seat belt on when we get into the car, those were once not social norms. And so I imagine a day in the future that maybe this everyone outdoors together movement can inspire, where we’re as a society getting outside every single day in nature for our own health and for the health of the planet.”

Sampson says there have been ad hoc movements like this in the past, not least the recent pandemic, but he also points to the northeast blackout of 2003 as an event that, ironically, brought people together outside across Ontario.

“It was in equal parts terrifying, because we didn’t know what was happening at the time, but it was also one of the more enjoyable experiences of my adult life, which was just simply being out on a lawn chair with my community members, enjoying a beautiful summer evening,” he says.

“That was something that really did factor into my thinking as we were developing this idea: How do we create something similar without turning the power off?”

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