Website www.danjohnstone.com Name Can Dan | ||
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can man dan dan johnstone talks ward 12 by election edmonton hot topics
Dan Johnstone (born July 31, 1987 in Edmonton, Alberta), also known as "Can Man Dan", is a Canadian anti-poverty activist, philanthropist, community organizer and social activist. His fundraising group, also called "Can Man Dan", works to alleviate poverty and strengthen communities in Alberta, Canada by working with several non profit groups and charities. Johnstone also hosts many of his own created events, but is perhaps best known for his annual "Moving Hunger Out" campaign, where he camps out multiple times every December in freezing cold temperatures in the back of a tractor-trailer, aiming to fill it with donations for various Food Banks around Alberta. Due to the severity of the winters commonly found in Alberta and the freezing cold temperatures that go along with them, These campouts have become highly publicized and staple events for various food banks around Alberta. Can Man Dan's campouts have proven to be very successful, as Dan has raised several thousands of dollars and thousands of pounds of food for local food banks every year from these events alone. Johnstone also has created and hosted many other events around Alberta aimed to help those less fortunate including his annual "We're Here For Ya Day" event. Can Man Dan offers free hair services, a barbacue lunch, personal hygiene products, backpacks filled with school supplies, fresh bread, and food hampers to thousands of men, women and children every year.
Contents
- can man dan dan johnstone talks ward 12 by election edmonton hot topics
- Can Man Dan becomes an Edmonton Eskimos cheerleader
- Noted charitable work
- Personal life
- Politics
- References
After growing up in a single mother, low income household, Johnstone was motivated to support the same services that his family had used while he was growing up and started the Can Man Dan initiative. Johnstone has stated that his ultimate goal is to spread a positive message about helping people in need, raise awareness for charities in distress and ultimately assist in the ending of poverty and homelessness in Alberta by forming a united community. On top of the various community events that he hosts, Johnstone is also a motivational speaker that travels to many schools and fundraising events around Alberta to share his story and adventures. Johnstone also leads an inner city feed program where he and his group of volunteers make and distribute lunches, care packages and backpacks filled with different items to the homeless community. Johnstone has publicly stated that he "makes zero financial gain" from his charitable endeavours as he believes that helping others and spreading a positive message is more important than making a profit. Johnstone has also been an outspoken supporter for many other social issues and programs such as the protection of domestic abuse victims, supporting LGBTQ rights and freedoms, initiating a basic income for Canadians, and defending social housing projects.
Can Man Dan becomes an Edmonton Eskimos cheerleader.
Noted charitable work
Johnstone's activism and philanthropy work began in Edmonton, Alberta in the summer of 2011 when he began going door-to-door around various neighbourhoods by himself collecting food and clothing donations for various charities, such as the Edmonton Food Bank, the youth shelter, and various homeless shelters and soup kitchens. In June 2013, Can Man Dan provided immediate assistance to Calgary's Food Bank and those affected by the 2013 Alberta floods in the form of 4000 pounds of food. In December 2013 and 2014, local Edmonton chain restaurant - Delux Burger Bar featured Can Man Dan as their "Celebrity Chef". Delux Burger Bar locations across Edmonton added the "Can Man Dan burger" to their menus and gave a portion of the burger sales to the Edmonton Food Bank on Dan's behalf. Johnstone made headlines in April 2014 after he announced that he would wrestle in a professional wrestling match with Canadian wrestling promotion, the PWA (The Prairie Wrestling Alliance) to raise money, food and awareness for Edmonton's homeless youth population. Despite suffering a fractured nose during the bout, Johnstone ultimately won his debut wrestling match raising thousands of dollars and thousands of pounds of food for Edmonton's Youth Empowerment and Support Services (YESS), an organization that Dan's mother had used when she was a teenager. In June 2015, Johnstone was ranked fourth in "WO? Magazine"'s list of the "Top 5 Anti-Poverty Activists". In the summer of 2015, Johnstone was voted in by Edmonton's general public to serve as an honorary parade marshal for their annual K-Days festival parade. Johnstone, along 5 other community heroes and various departments of Edmonton's first responders were made honorary parade marshals and each given $2500 to donate to a charity of their choice.
In November 2015, a press release was issued announcing that Johnstone was given an honorary chair and made official ambassador for Alberta's Adopt-A-Teen program, a social program that Dan and his family used when he was growing up. Johnstone made national headlines in December 2015 as he announced that he would spend the month touring Alberta and camping out in various cities to raise resources for multiple food banks across the province who were affected by the economic downturn. Johnstone's "Tour of Alberta" raised 25 tonnes of food and thousands of dollars for various food banks throughout Alberta to distribute to people in need. In May 2016, Johnstone revealed that he and his mother were former victims of domestic abuse and that he was starting a thirty-five-day campaign to raise awareness for domestic abuse victims and raise money for a local women's shelter (WIN House) in Edmonton. Johnstone's campaign consisted of completing six "extreme and wacky" stunts around Edmonton which were intended to raise awareness and money. Johnstone's stunts included wrestling in a professional wrestling match against Ring Of Honor's Silas Young, becoming an Edmonton Eskimos cheerleader for a day, and undergoing intense police training with Edmonton police, among other stunts. In December 2016, Johnstone embarked on his "Feed Alberta Tour" hoping to raise food and funds for various food banks across Alberta that were hit hard due to the ongoing recession. Johnstone travelled to the cities that were hit the hardest by the stagnant economy and camped out in freezing cold temperatures for several days on end. Johnstone's "Feed Alberta Tour" raised more than 50 000 pounds of food and close to $20 000 in cash donations. In May 2017, Can Man Dan took 55 students from a local Catholic elementary school into the cities inner streets of downtown Edmonton to pass out hundreds of "care packages", filled with food, personal hygiene products and socks to the cities homeless and most vulnerable. In September 2017, Can Man Dan was voted "Best Activist" in Vue Weekly's "Best of Edmonton 2017" series. Readers, along with Edmonton's general public voted Johnstone as Edmonton's "Best Activist" for his hard work and dedication to the community.
Personal life
Daniel Lee Johnstone, was born in Edmonton, Alberta on July 31, 1987 during the notorious Edmonton tornado (also known as "Black Friday") that claimed 27 lives and is the eldest son of Pamela Johnstone. Dan is an avid professional wrestling fan and board game enthusiast. He is also a huge reality television fan and has said that he one day hopes to compete on Big Brother Canada and The Amazing Race Canada. In the spring of 2015, Johnstone started a new community project aimed to help struggling locally owned businesses attain new customers called "Localive".
Politics
In June 2013, Dan Johnstone announced that he would be running in the Edmonton municipal election, 2013. Johnstone declared that he would be running for the open seat in Edmonton's Ward 10 which was vacated by Mayoral hopeful, Don Iveson. Johnstone, a self declared fiscal conservative, was the youngest candidate running for any position in the 2013 Edmonton election, being only 25 years old when he announced his candidacy. Johnstone's platform was largely based on the repair of basic infrastructure, working to pay off the city's deficit, focusing on the revitalization of mature neighbourhoods, investing in the building of low income housing, building a stronger public transit system and lowering fares. Johnstone, also pledged to self fund his entire campaign and donate $10 000 for each year of his terms salary to various charities and causes around Edmonton citing that "politicians make entirely too much money". Johnstone was ultimately defeated by former Alberta Party candidate, Michael Walters.
On December 27 of 2015, Johnstone announced his candidacy for the Ward 12 by-election race in Edmonton's south-side district to replace Amarjeet Sohi who was elected to Justin Trudeau's Liberal government in October 2015. Johnstone, once again labelling himself as a fiscal conservative and socially progressive candidate, concentrated on restructuring Edmonton's photo radar system and redirecting a majority of the revenue to Edmonton's Police services, ushering in a more economical public transit system, postponing the building of the Valley Line LRT route, and mandating that a certain percentage of newly developed land must contain low-income and other forms of social housing. Johnstone was also openly critical of the record breaking thirty-two candidates citing that it would confuse casual voters and result in a low voter turnout. Johnstone was defeated by local police detective, Moe Banga.