The Great Canadian Sunset: How One Outdoor Moment Could Unite All Canadians
With a little over nine million square kilometres of land and nearly 900,000 square kilometres of freshwater lakes, Canada is a massive country. But it’s not just that Canada is big. Whether it’s people, places or landscapes, you won’t find many other places on Earth with so much diversity packed into one country. But what unites people across such a diverse country?
Some might say sports like hockey. Others might argue that it’s our steadfast determination not to be Americans. But for Martin Sampson, CEO of the Canadian Parks and Recreation Association, it’s about a love for the outdoors. That love may not look the same everywhere, but whether it’s camping and backpacking, mountain biking or just going for a walk on a local trail, Sampson thinks that, across Canada, we’re all connected by our connection to the land and the water.
A new campaign called Everyone Outdoors Together launched earlier this month and kicks off on July 18th with a call for people across the country to get outside and witness the sunset.
“The event started with an idea,” Sampson, who was interviewed by David Webb on this week’s episode of explore’s Live the Adventure podcast, said. “We asked ourselves a question: imagine if on one day a year we could get all Canadians to step outdoors and enjoy an afternoon of outdoor recreation culminating in a sunset or midnight sun moment that people could share with their friends, family and the land and water we cherish. And we thought, why not invite people to do this?”
The idea resonated with Sampson’s partner organizations. A national body, the Canadian Parks and Recreation Association brings together Canada’s 13 provincial and territorial recreation and parks associations and, through them, connects to a nationwide ecosystem of municipalities and partner groups.
“What I tell people is that our alliances are an asset of the most value because they allow us to communicate with every corner of the country on the issues that we care about,” Sampson explained.
Issues like recreation and parks, which Sampson calls “the beating heart and the lifeblood of our communities.”
“The more we can get people engaging in social recreation and going outside and enjoying nature and each other’s company, we believe that will just improve the well-being of Canadians and everyone who lives in this country,” he said.
And that’s not just a set of platitudes. A 2019 study published in the journal Nature found that spending as little as two hours in nature each week can improve physical and mental health. And that nature doesn’t need to be big mountains or sprawling national parks; simply walking in a treed city park or along a lakeshore can bring results.
That study helped to spark something called PaRX. A program of the BC Parks Foundation, it supports medical practitioners in prescribing time in nature as a part of routine healthcare.
“There’s this huge body of research showing that nature time can improve all kinds of different physical and mental health conditions, from diabetes and heart disease to ADHD and depression,” Melissa Lem, a Vancouver family medicine physician and one of the PaRX founders, explained back in 2022.
It made sense then that the PaRX program was part of how the idea for Everyone Outdoors Together was born. Earlier this summer, Sampson was paddleboarding on Lac Sainte-Marie in Quebec at sunset when he was hit with a wave of inspiration. He had recently met Jenny McCaffrey, who coordinates the PaRX program for the BC Parks Foundation, and decided to give her a call. McCaffrey just happened to be canoeing on a lake in British Columbia at the exact same time. Something clicked, and the two started talking about organizing a cross-country sunset paddle.
“But not everyone can do that,” Sampson said. “So, we thought, how do we make it more inclusive? And that’s how Everyone Outdoors Together was born…We’re inviting people to participate in whatever way makes sense for them. At the very core of this idea is the notion of belonging and inclusiveness, and that people can do it in whatever way makes sense to them.”
When it comes to outdoor recreation, an event like this couldn’t be better timed. In 2023, Statistics Canada released data showing that 78 percent of Canadian households reported participating in outdoor activities close to home.
A 2026 trends report from the American Outdoor Industry Alliance found that participation in outdoor activities had grown at an average rate of three percent year over year since 2023. But the report also found that while more people were getting outside, they were taking fewer trips, something the authors suggested could be reversed with community-led efforts.
“Early outdoor experiences, family participation, local parks and accessible community spaces are the foundation of lifelong engagement,” the report explained. “When frequency falls, those downstream benefits fall with it. That includes impacts on public health, youth development, community connection and quality of life.”
Sampson thinks we’re seeing similar issues in Canada. But he also believes that projects like Everyone Outdoors Together can help reverse them by increasing public participation in outdoor recreation.
“It is a simple idea, but it potentially could be quite profound,” said Sampson. “There’s this notion of Canadian identity, that what we get to enjoy here is pretty special. And so, one of the things we want people to do is spend a moment in gratitude for this wonderful landscape we live in. The land and water we share are special.”
In the weeks since the project launched, momentum has built quickly with more than a dozen events registered on the Everyone Outdoors Together website. They’ve also managed to recruit more than 40 local and national partners, including explore. Sampson is already thinking about the future.
“We put the idea out there this year with the goal of just seeing what happens,” he said. “I’m looking at a three-year arc. So this year is to get it out there, see if we can build some partnerships, and see if we can get a discussion going… then the goal gets pretty audacious. By 2028, this becomes part of the Canadian cultural calendar.”
