In the early 1970s, ParticipACTION launched a national advertising campaign that claimed the average 30-year-old Canadian had the equivalent physical fitness of the average 60-year-old Swede.
It turns out, that ad was a bit of an exaggeration, a way for the national nonprofit organization to get its message across to promote health and fitness for Canadians, admits Kelly Murmumets, the president and CEO of ParticipACTION.
"That was a little bit fictitious," said Murumets. "it was a marketing angle, but I do know Canada has not caught up Sweden."
In fact, Canadians still lag behind most western European countries in their collective physical fitness.
"Our physical activity levels are much lower than any of the Scandinavian countries," said Murumets. "We're way down the list, lower than Germany, lower than the Netherlands, and we're just a little bit better than the U.S. Canadians quite often think Americans are in the worst shape but we're not that far ahead of them.
"But nowhere in the world is great because we have a physical inactivity crisis globally. No country is fantastic because the world has become more sedentary and more reliant on technology and we need to start to reverse the trend."
With that goal in mind, this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Northern Sport Centre, Kin 3 and the Coliseum, everybody is invited to try out several different sports at Sportz Xtravaganza, one of about 1,000 free events planned across the country to get people active in sports as part of Sports Day In Canada. ParticipACTION has teamed up with CBC Sports and PacificSport Northern B.C. to promote the event.
"Sports Day In Canada is a celebration of sports at the grassroots community level, from amateur all the way to elite sports, and it's for people of all ages," said Murumets. "What we want to do is celebrate sport in this country to get people more physically active."
Taking part regularly in sports and activities goes way beyond the obvious health benefits, and that's a message ParticipACTION wants to get across on Saturday.
"Kids who are involved in sports learn leadership, how to be a member of a team, they learn great communication skills and they learn the beauty of victory and the agony of defeat," said Murumets. "We also know communities that have sports have lower crime rates and that we can use sports to integrate new Canadians into that community.
"Physical activity doesn't mean you have to don a team jersey or wear spandex, it can just be heading out to the park with your kids and kicking a ball around or going for a bike ride, going skateboarding or, in the wintertime, making snow angels. It doesn't have to mean going to the gym. And whatever you do, you have to laugh and have fun with it or you won't keep doing it."
The Prince George event has a 2015 Canada Winter Games theme. The list of activities includes badminton, biathlon, cross-country skiing, basketball, lacrosse, judo, ringette, Special Olympics sports, speed skating, and wheelchair basketball.
