A viral Vancouver Island tourism campaign last year brought hundreds of visitors and unexpectedly attracted healthcare workers who moved to Canada. Now there are 40 healthcare infusion chapters nationwide, and the creators are releasing a free handbook and video course so other communities can replicate it. They're asking for support through a paid newsletter to fund the expansion.
Chapters
Hello, I have some news, uh, and I'm a little nervous to share it. Last year, as you may know, I made a video inviting Americans to come visit BC, Vancouver Island specifically. The video went viral, hundreds of people showed up, and in a community bruised by tariffs where folks were worried about making rent, that presence made a real measurable difference. Business owners who had been holding their breath got to exhale for a weekend. But something else happened too. Something that Jocelyne and I did not see coming. A lot of healthcare workers came up to take a look around, maybe picture a life here. Some of the same people who showed up last year to the tourism infusion event have since moved to Canada, working in our public healthcare system right now. They are somebody's nurse, somebody's doctor. So with the help of a whole bunch of people, Jocelyne and I built that into a national movement with more than 40 healthcare infusion chapters across this country, more being added every week. One just got added today. But the tourism event, the one where we asked people to come and eat in our restaurants and shop in our stores, that's the one that struck a nerve. The messages started coming in from other towns, places I've never been to, places I've driven through, but, you know, asking us, "Can you do this for us too?" And look, I love Lethbridge. But I can't advocate for Lethbridge. We don't live there. I don't know what diner has the best breakfast. The people who love Lethbridge do. What Jocelyn and I can do is help them. So today I'm announcing that Jocelyn and I are building a national tourism infusion program too. You'll be able to take what we've done, learn from the mistakes we made, and invite the world to see what is amazing about your part of this great country. It's going to be a handbook, it's going to be an online video program built for regular people, maybe like you, who love where they live and just want to share it. And yes, it will be completely free. Free to download, free to use. You don't have to credit us, you won't have to sign up for anything, just take it and use it for your community. Now, to make this happen, I am taking a leap that scares me a little. I am scaling back on my day job a bit so that I can do more of these weird-ass projects for Canada. If you would like to help, the simplest way is to sign up for my newsletter. There's a free tier, will always be a free tier, but for a few bucks a month you can support this work and get bonus midweek issues, behind-the-scenes videos where Jocelyn and I share things we don't say in public, a monthly Zoom call with me, and a lot more. Every subscription is a tiny vote of confidence that lets us keep going. So we are hoping to launch the National Tourism Infusion Program at the end of May. I'll keep you posted as we figure it out. And thank you for all of it.
