ParticipACTION
Encyclopedia
Health
Health is the level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being. In humans, it is the general condition of a person's mind, body and spirit, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain...
y living and physical fitness
Physical fitness
Physical fitness comprises two related concepts: general fitness , and specific fitness...
. It shut down due to financial cutbacks in 2001, but was revived on February 19, 2007 with a grant of $5 million from the Federal Government.
ParticipACTION emerged from Sport Participation Canada, a non-profit private company formed on July 12, 1971. Lester B. Pearson
Lester B. Pearson
Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson, PC, OM, CC, OBE was a Canadian professor, historian, civil servant, statesman, diplomat, and politician, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for organizing the United Nations Emergency Force to resolve the Suez Canal Crisis...
chaired the board while Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien
Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien
Philippe de Gaspé Beaubien, OC is a Canadian media proprietor, who was chairman and CEO of Telemedia. He founded the company in 1968, and went on to acquire a number of radio stations in Quebec and Ontario, and launched magazines such as Canadian Living, Harrowsmith and the Canadian editions of...
served as president. In 1972, the company was nationalized by then-prime minister Pierre Trudeau to battle exorbitant health care
Health care
Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...
costs. The resulting government program was renamed ParticipACTION.
ParticipACTION is well known for its television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
public service announcement
Public service announcement
A public service announcement or public service ad is a type of advertisement featured on television, radio, print or other media...
s and segments such as Body Break during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. A 1973 commercial, comparing the health of a 30-year-old Canadian to a 60-year-old Swede
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, started a national discussion on the state of physical education
Physical education
Physical education or gymnastics is a course taken during primary and secondary education that encourages psychomotor learning in a play or movement exploration setting....
in Canada.
Body Break
Body Break is a series of 90-second televisionTelevision
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
programs dedicated to informing television audiences of ways to "keep fit and have fun". Funded in part by ParticipACTION, the programs are hosted by Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod and air regularly on Canadian television
Television in Canada
Television in Canada officially began with the opening of the nation's first television stations in Montreal and Toronto in 1952. As with most media in Canada, the television industry, and the television programming available in that country, are strongly influenced by the American media, perhaps...
. The programs are designed to briefly introduce tips for healthy living to a television audience.
Both Hal and Joanne are accomplished athletes with backgrounds in sports medicine and nutrition. Johnson, a native of Toronto, Ontario, was an all-star
All-star
All-star is a term designating an individual as having a high level of performance in their field. Originating in sports, it has since drifted into vernacular and been borrowed heavily by the entertainment industry...
baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
player while he attended the University of Colorado
University of Colorado at Boulder
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university located in Boulder, Colorado...
on athletic scholarship, and led the Big 8 conference in home runs, RBIs, and batting average. He was drafted into Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
by the Cincinnati Reds
Cincinnati Reds
The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are members of the National League Central Division. The club was established in 1882 as a charter member of the American Association and joined the National League in 1890....
, but opted instead to finish his business degree
Business school
A business school is a university-level institution that confers degrees in Business Administration. It teaches topics such as accounting, administration, economics, entrepreneurship, finance, information systems, marketing, organizational behavior, public relations, strategy, human resource...
. After a series of successful ventures in the business world, he decided he would be better off as a broadcaster in Canada.
McLeod, from Moscow, Russia, was named to several Canadian national teams, and nominated as Canadian Athlete of the Year. She was asked to appear on several television programs as the resident fitness expert, and eventually met Hal Johnson. (McLeod should not be confused with the professional figure skating coach, known for coaching Emanuel Sandhu and William Bridel.)
In 2001, when ParticipACTION shut down, Body Break was kept alive and still can be watched on CTV
CTV television network
CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...
.
The two hosts of Body Break married in the late 1990s, having kept their relationship secret from the public for several years.