Most men have been taught to handle it themselves. The problem is that silence has a cost.

And Canada's Minister of Health — a woman, no less — isn't willing to stay quiet about it.

Loneliness gets brushed off as nothing. The pressure to "be strong" gets handed down to sons and grandsons. Addiction and suicide rates climb, and warning signs get missed because no one was ever supposed to ask for help in the first place.

In this episode of the Don't Change Much Podcast, hosts Mike Cameron and Trevor Botkin sit down with the Honourable Marjorie Michel to talk about the federal consultation on a national Men and Boys Health Strategy, and why she decided this was a challenge worth picking.

What started as a series of cross-country conversations turned into a wake-up call. Hon. Minister Michel shares how the same word kept coming up, trip after trip, across trades workers, fathers, and Indigenous communities alike, and how that pattern convinced her — a self-described lifelong feminist — that men's health needed its own seat at the table. The conversation moves through loneliness, the pressure to perform masculinity, the addiction and suicide statistics she can't ignore as Canada’s Health Minister, and why she believes progress for men and progress for women aren't in competition with each other.

You'll hear:

• Why the Minister calls herself "the holistic Minister of Health"
• How a pattern of conversations on the road turned into a national consultation
• The link between trades work, injury, and addiction
• Why men need space to talk without women in the room, and why that's not a "boys' club"
• What the Minister wants every man and boy to know about asking for help

Because no policy, no government, and no single person can carry this alone. Sometimes leadership just means opening the door to a conversation that's long overdue.

Get your Suspenders On this June. Wear them. Share why. Donate. Invite others.

Tag @menshealthfdn #SuspendersOn #NeverAlone #MensHealthMonth

Donate to Suspenders On: https://menshealthfoundation.ca/canadian-mens-health-month/

Follow Canadian Health Minister Marjorie Michel

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/marjoriemichelplc/

Follow Canadian Men's Health Foundation
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/menshealthfdn/
Facebook - https://facebook.com/menshealthfoundation

Follow Mike Cameron
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mikecameron.ca/
YouTube - https://youtube.com/mikecameronspeaks
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mikedavidcameron/
Website - https://mikecameron.ca/

Follow Trevor Botkin
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/gsnscreative
Muster Point IG - https://www.instagram.com/the_musterpoint
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/gsnscreative
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-botkin-869ab5143/

Support Men & Their Familes: https://menshealthfoundation.ca/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most men know when something isn't right. The problem is they often wait.

A checkup gets pushed to next month. A difficult conversation gets delayed. The little voice in the back of the head gets ignored until it can't be ignored anymore.

This June, the Canadian Men's Health Foundation is asking Canadians to get their Suspenders On — a simple visual reminder that men are never meant to carry everything alone. In this episode, Mike Cameron and Trevor Botkin sit down with the men behind the campaign: Graham Love and John Armstrong of Armstrong Strategy Group, who built Suspenders On from the ground up, and Andrew Jackson of Jackson Events, who's helping rally NHL alumni and other Canadian athletes to put their suspenders on too.

The idea started six weeks before launch, in a brainstorm at the Armstrong office. Graham thought of his grandfather — a Glaswegian shipbuilder who wore suspenders so often the marks were on his back. The image stuck, the campaign followed.

What the conversation reveals is everything underneath it.

John Armstrong tells the story of a pact he made with a colleague who needed to see a doctor: if you go, I'll go. The appointment that followed caught John's prostate cancer in time.

Graham wears his suspenders for his brother Andrew, who died of liver cancer in 2022 and who Graham believes might still be here if anyone had nudged him sooner.

Andrew Jackson opens up about a friend who made him promise to see a doctor before he died of stomach cancer at 56, about losing hockey alumnus Claude Lemieux just days before recording, and about a moment in his own office when a colleague asked him what the hell is wrong with you, and he finally let it out.

Some of what they talk about:

• The joke that captures the whole campaign: "Women go to the doctor for the same reason men don't; in case there's something wrong"
• Why high performers in sports, business, and the trades are especially good at carrying things they shouldn't
• The relief that arrives the moment a man finally says it out loud
• How "I'll deal with it later" becomes the most dangerous sentence in men's health

Get your Suspenders On this June. Wear them. Share why. Donate. Invite others.

Tag @menshealthfdn #SuspendersOn #NeverAlone #MensHealthMonth

Donate to Suspenders On: https://menshealthfoundation.ca/canadian-mens-health-month/

Follow Armstrong Strategy Group

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/armstrong-strategy-group/

Follow Jackson Events

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jacksoneventsinc/

Follow Mike Cameron

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mikecameron.ca/

YouTube - https://youtube.com/mikecameronspeaks

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mikedavidcameron/

Website - https://mikecameron.ca/

Follow Trevor Botkin

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/gsnscreative

Muster Point IG - https://www.instagram.com/the_musterpoint

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/gsnscreative

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-botkin-869ab5143/

Support Men & Their Familes: https://menshealthfoundation.ca/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Content note: This episode discusses suicide and medical assistance in dying. Support: call or text 9-8-8 anytime in Canada.

Zack Heil was at a Subway in Hamilton at 1am when something small changed his life. A homeless woman couldn't afford her sub. He bought it for her, and she told him no one had ever done that for her before. He went home and started a men's mental health movement that night. He's 19.

Trevor McLaughlin is on the other side of the conversation. In 2022, he applied for therapy in Ontario and was told the wait was 14 months. His next phone call was to ask how to apply for medical assistance in dying. He's still here. In June 2027, he's biking 8,200 kilometres across Canada with a campaign called Annihilate the Walls.

Hosts Mike Cameron and Trevor Botkin sit down with both of them. Two men recognizing each other across a twelve-year gap. One figuring it out in real time. And the other who's been to the bottom and back.

This episode kicks off Canadian Men's Health Month. Get your Suspenders On for the men in your life. Wear them. Share why. Donate. Invite others.

Donate: https://menshealthfoundation.ca/canadian-mens-health-month/

#SuspendersOn #NeverAlone #MensHealthMonth

SUPPORT THE GUESTS

Call Your Bros

https://menshealthfoundation.ca/campaign/support-mens-health/fundraiser/102/

Annihilate the Walls

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Annihilate-the-Walls-Ride/61585270212812/|

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/atwride2027/

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST AND CANADIAN MEN'S HEALTH FOUNDATION https://menshealthfoundation.ca/donate/

Follow Mike Cameron

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mikecameron.ca/

YouTube - https://youtube.com/mikecameronspeaks

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mikedavidcameron/

Website - https://mikecameron.ca/

Follow Trevor Botkin

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/gsnscreative

Muster Point IG - https://www.instagram.com/the_musterpoint

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/gsnscreative

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevor-botkin-869ab5143/

Support Men & Their Familes: https://menshealthfoundation.ca/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.