My friends and family are heading into our 4th week of virtual Friday night gatherings online, as is the norm during in the COVID-19 pandemic. Since we’re not going out, companies finding creative ways to support local businesses. Molson Canadian’s Virtual Happy Hour contest aims to support your favourite local restaurant, and reward you in the process.
Molson Canadian’s Virtual Happy Hour
Molson is inviting people to connect over a #VirtualHappyHour and rewards hosts with a $25 gift card for use at their favourite local bar or restaurant.
How it Works
Get your friends together over a Virtual Happy Hour and raise a beer. Not just Molson beer, any beer.
Share a screenshot or video of you and your friends with #VirtualHappyHour and tag your favourite local restaurant or bar, as well as Molson Canadian on your Instagram page, or @Molson_Canadian on Twitter.
Molson will buy you a $25 gift card for use at the local restaurant or bar you tagged. Now you can help support your favourite local hangout when it needs it most, and have a great reason to go back when you can.
“For now, while we can’t raise one at our favourite local spot, we can raise one for it, and with the promise of an IRL meet-up to come,” says Joy Ghosh, NA Marketing Director, Molson Family of Brands. “Supporting local businesses – in the good times, and the not so good times – is part of John Molson’s legacy as one of Canada’s first entrepreneurs.”
The program runs until April 30, 2020 or while supplies last (whichever comes first). Rules on how to participate are available on the website. Follow @MolsonCanadian on Instagram and @Molson_Canadian on Twitter to see #VirtualHappyHour being featured from coast to coast.
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by Rebecca BollwittDisclosure: Sponsored Post — Sponsored by Canada Takeout Please review the Policy & Disclosure section for further information.
In a historic move to save the foodservice industry, several hundred restaurant owners, chefs, culinary leaders and celebrities across Canada have joined forces to support Canada Takeout to make every Wednesday #TakeoutDay.
This movement encourages Canadians to order from their favourite local restaurant offering takeout or delivery, with a nationwide kickoff on Wednesday, April 15, 2020 for #TakeoutDay.
Canada Takeout to Make Every Wednesday TakeoutDay
Restaurants Canada estimates that 800,000 foodservice jobs have already been lost nationwide due to COVID-19. Nearly 1 in 10 restaurants have already closed permanently and many more might close by the end of April if conditions don’t improve. Food service sales are expected to be down nearly $20 billion for the second quarter of 2020.
“Restaurants are vital to the social and economic fabric of communities across Canada, but operating a foodservice business is tough, even in the best of times,” said Shanna Munro, Restaurants Canada President and CEO.
“Not only was our industry among the first to feel the impacts of COVID-19, we’ve been one of the hardest hits so far, with nearly two thirds of our workforce now lost. We would love to see Canadians embrace #TakeoutDay and support those restaurants who are still able to operate through takeout or delivery.”
“#TakeoutDay aims to save more than just businesses – whether it’s the local mom and pops eatery or the popular restaurant that made it onto top dining lists. Our robust and diverse culinary scene is an integral part Canada’s unique identity and we stand to lose an important part of our culture and heritage if we don’t do our part,” says Pay Chen, a popular food opinion leader and an ambassador for Canada Takeout.
Launching Takeout Day in Style
Canada’s Great Kitchen Party – Home Edition will host an epic variety show on Facebook live at 5:00pm PT on Wednesday, April 15th in partnership with Canada Takeout. It will feature musical entertainment from Canada’s top talent and celebrated athletes. Headliners will include Jim Cuddy, Alan Doyle, Ed Robertson, Barney Bentall and Tom Cochrane. The full lineup will be announced soon. Friends and family can enjoy dinner and a concert together virtually and do their part to help restaurants on #TakeoutDay.
Iconic chef, Mark McEwan’s heartfelt plea to Canadians can be viewed in this along with messages from other culinary leaders from coast to coast.
Hundreds of Canada’s favourite food personalities are actively involved including, chef Vikram Vij (Vancouver and Surrey), chef Ivana Raca (Toronto), and chef Tyrone Welchinski (Winnipeg). They are encouraging Canadians to share this campaign with family and friends across social media with #TakeoutDay. Find out where to order here.
Canada Takeout urges Canadians to make every Wednesday #TakeoutDay! Follow Canada Takeout on Facebook and Instagram for more info.
Share your best isolation portrait from inside your home and be a part of a new community-based art project! The “Power of Portrait – We are all in this together, Vancouver” is a citizen-led initiative to reclaim boarded-up storefronts as canvases to share stories of resilience and reinforce community connection, through portraits of Vancouverites.
The Power of Portrait
The project was initiated by Andrea McLaren, a local clinical counsellor who was concerned about the psychological impact of social distancing and of the boarded-up businesses in our community during this time. She brought on Jai Djwa, a digital media artist, to help with the idea and build the website.
How it Works
Residents of Greater Vancouver are encouraged to submit either a self-portrait or a photo of a fellow self-isolator within their household to the website. Professional photographs are not required. As social distancing is critical at this time, participants are encouraged to take photos inside their homes and not out in the community. All ages are welcome to submit their portrait. Upload your photo on the website here.
The Power of Portrait project will curate a series of photo portraits submitted by Vancouverites, based on project guidelines. The photos will be shared on the project’s Facebook page and website.
In addition, up to 50 portraits will be selected to be printed in black and white and displayed in a location on Robson Street. The final installation, showing the displayed portraits, will also be shared through the project’s website and Facebook page.
The selection process will be conducted by a committee of local artists and business owners to ensure the photos meet project guidelines and are representative of the wonderful diversity that makes Vancouver such a great city.
McLaren and Djwa wanted to create something that might capture the hearts and minds of people who are socially distancing, to inspire togetherness, despite being apart.
“We are pleased to support an art project of this kind that celebrates our amazing city,” said Teri Smith, Executive Director of the Robson Street Business Association. “The initiative also provides a unique way for us to stay connected to one another during these challenging times.”
McLaren’s goal with the project is for the portraits to provide a reminder of our collective experience living in the era of COVID-19 in Vancouver, as well as help inject life and soul back into Vancouver’s quiet neighbourhood streets. McLaren and Djwa would like to acknowledge the artist JR and his Inside Out Project, which drew them to think about how art can bring people together.
In response to the call for increased action to address the COVID-19 pandemic, BC Parks is immediately closing the entire BC Parks system, including all parks, protected areas, conservancies, recreation areas, and ecological reserves. All camping (front and backcountry) is now banned until May 31st, 2020.
With the desire of the public to get outdoors, many parks have already experienced peak season levels of use that have resulted in overwhelmed parking lots, trails and trailheads, making physical distancing difficult, if not impossible in some locations. It has also resulted in damage to facilities and the environment.
Porpoise Bay Provincial Park
This closure is also necessary to ensure the continued health and safety of visitors, employees, park operators and their staff, volunteers, and park contractors. By taking this action, BC Parks aligns with federal and provincial directives for people to stay home to reduce COVID-19 transmission risk.
What is Closed
This temporary measure means public and vehicle access is prohibited until further notice.
All trails, roads, day-use areas, beaches, lakes, boat launches, and backcountry areas are closed to the public.
Park closures will be enforced through regular monitoring and patrols and anyone found in a closed park will be evicted and could face a $115 fine.
In addition to the full system closure, the campground closure has been extended to May 31st, 2020.
Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park (Othello Tunnels)
Camping Refunds
Full refunds will continue to be provided to those with existing reservations during this time. The Discover Camping reservation system has been suspended for all new reservations. A public notice will be issued once facilities are reopened and the system is able to accept new reservations.
BC Parks continues to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic closely and is following the recommendations set out by the Provincial Health Officer and the Minister of Health for decisions related to closure and reopening of parks and facilities.
I have reached out to some of my friends around the globe who are originally from the “604” area to see how they’re doing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here is the eighth in the Vancouverites in Isolation Elsewhere series:
Vancouverites in Isolation Elsewhere: Dave in Japan
Name: Dave Olson Hometown: Whalley (but have lived in most all of Vancouver’s extended suburbs and burroughs including: Lynn Valley, West End, North Burnaby, Newton, Maillardville etc etc) Current City: Okayama, Japan – a rather under-appreciated provincial capital between Osaka and Hiroshima
What is your city like right now?
Long answer: The virus first arrived in Japan in January with the quarantined cruise ship and soon after, some precautions were taken from stopping tour groups from China and closing the schools, cancelling sumo and baseball, closing attractions but not shops and restaurants. After the initial response, everything gradually returned to “sorta normal” (keeping in mind normal is Japan means people commonly wear masks, stores are generally very clean, and there is very little in the way of hand shaking and air kisses).
Photo: us in Nagasaki in the “early days” of the plague
We travelled to Nagasaki in early February (a lifetime ago) and already masking and taking precautions and thought we were through the worst of it but recently ramping back up 🙁 in the usual exponential manner – especially in big cities.
Our smaller city/area is growing in cases but still rather calm but anxious, fewer people out and about but certainly not a “ghost town” feeling like other places. There is no lockdown or official quarantine (the post-war constitution puts limits on what government can do) and clear recommendations have been scant.
We’ve also had to go to local “general” hospitals and city offices recently and well, no extra precautions were being taken so we left immediately. Note: Our birthing hospital is wonderfully very clean, prepared and we have a plan a, b, and c. We live out of town in a semi-rural environment so our situation is atypical of city dwellers (like Tokyo area with population of Canada).
After what was a rather lukewarm government response (mailing 2 masks per household wtf?), now that the Olympics are officially postponed, PM Abe and colleagues declared a state of emergency for Tokyo and few other large cities just recently (writing this on April 6, 2020) as the situation is getting rather intense with rapid cases developing.
