‘Hope for the best, prepare for the worst’
MORE CANADIANS INTERESTED IN SURVIVALISM
Many Canadians were not prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic, but Dave MacDonald wasn’t one of them.
While some people rushed to stores to buy toilet paper and food, MacDonald was living peacefully at his remote home in southern Manitoba with his wife and two sons.
They live “off-grid” near the town of Lac du Bonnet and grow about half their own food in their backyard. MacDonald also hunts.
“I don’t even need toilet paper,” the 55-year-old says.
“I can use snow, leaves or my hands. Snow is most stimulating.”
MacDonald is a part of a growing community of survivalists or “preppers,” who ready themselves for possible catastrophes that could crumble governments and infrastructure.
Some say they have noticed an uptick in interest in the movement since the pandemic began.
MacDonald, who teaches survivalist courses, also had a long career as a search-andrescue specialist with the Royal Canadian Air Force.
“I’ve seen plane crashes. I’ve seen boats on fire. I’ve seen people fall overboard. I’ve seen helicopters crash. I’ve seen trains derail. I’ve seen factories explode. I’ve seen wars break out everywhere,” he says.
“People get themselves into trouble because they figure, ‘Oh, that’s never gonna happen to me.’ And then when it does happen, because it does happen, they’re not prepared.”‘
COVID-19 is one of those events that people weren’t prepared for, says MacDonald, who believes that’s why many have enrolled in his International Canadian School of Survival.
He teaches firearm training and basic survival skills such as food rationing, land navigation and building fires. The number of students in his courses have doubled — and in his online classes they have quadruped — since the pandemic began.
Some survivalists may be prepping for the end of the world, but for MacDonald it’s about being prepared.
“There are three classifications: emergency survival; primitive living skills; and bush craft. I teach mostly emergency survival. Bush craft is when you’re out in the wilderness and refining your skills in the wilderness. And primitive living is when people want to do things the oldfashioned way.”