A music video filmed in several locations here by a singer best known as “The Canuck” has become a YouTube celebration of Canadian Farmers.
Kitchener-based songwriter Kevin Westphal has been creating songs about Canadian cultural topics, from Tim Hortons to the Toronto Maple Leafs, for nearly 15 years.
Westphal said he gained his “Canuck” identity almost by accident through a series of events that began back in 2000.
“I had written a song all about high gas prices, and at that time gas was maybe 53 cents a litre, which sounds kind of funny,” he recalls, noting that when the price of gas “shot through the roof” one weekend, his song was suddenly all over local airwaves.
Unbeknownst to Westphal, the song made its way across the ocean and was played across Europe for several years, attributed to an artist referred to simply as “The Canuck.”
“That particular song ended up in 2006 being played on a Stompin’ Tom Connors tour… Tom didn’t sing it, his guitarist played it … Tom called me and told me they wanted to do this song on the tour – from that I got paid and from that I realized this had been getting played over in Europe,” Westphal explained.
Westphal followed it up with a ditty which has become known as “The Timmie’s Song” and a tune called Puck Nut Daddy, which has become something of an anthem for long-suffering Maple Leaf fans (the chorus goes: I cheer when they’re first, I cheer when they’re last. I’ll cheer in the future, like I cheered in the past. This puck nut daddy will never let up, ‘til the Leafs win a Stanley Cup.)
He’s also written a tribute to the Legion and an ode to the village of Lucknow.
It was while filming the latter tune a couple of years ago that Westphal’s attention turned to farming.
The singer says he was “blown away” by the response to Lucknow.
“I had people calling from all over Midwestern Ontario who really related to that song and that video, including a lot of Midwestern Ontario farmers. I met a ton of them and I was kind of inspired a little bit that way.”
Westphal said he has received a lot of support over the years from Wingham-based CKNX radio and told station announcer Dan Bieman about his plans to record a song about farmers. Bieman, a Harriston resident, connected him with Josh Harrison and his father Pete, who invited the singer to film on their Harriston farm.
“It was open arms as soon as they found out what the nature of the song was,” said Wesphal. “Great farm too, couldn’t ask for a better spot.”
Some filming also took place on the nearby farm of Ralph and Betty Tar and in the produce section of the local L&M grocery store.
The result is a tune called Here is to Our Farmers, which can be found easily online by searching Westphal’s name and the song title.
Westphal says the song is typical of his patriotic style.
“I’m fascinated with Canadian culture and things that happen in our country… There’s some things that we take for granted in this county and I felt farming was something we need to remind people about how wonderful it is and how we’re the best in the world,” said Westphal.
While some of his videos have received thousands of hits online, “The Canuck” prefers to gauge their impact through the audience reaction he’s begun to receive when performing live.
He recalled recently being asked to get up and sing before about 500 people at a rodeo.
“I sang one of my songs and it was actually kind of flooring because everybody sang along with me … I don’t get played on the radio, but people seem to know the lyrics to the songs,” he said.
