Can Man Dan

Dan Lee Johnstone (born July 31, 1987, in Edmonton, Alberta), also known as "Can Man Dan," is a Canadian anti-poverty and social activist, philanthropist, and author.

Alongside his non-profit organization, the Can Man Dan Foundation, Johnstone has worked with local community members, various levels of government, and other non-profit groups and charities to facilitate his charitable acts.

Growing up in a single-mother, low-income household, Johnstone was motivated to support the same services and community projects that his family had used and started the Can Man Dan initiative.

Johnstone has stated that his ultimate goal is to "spread a positive message about helping people in need, raise awareness for different charities in need, and ultimately assist in the ending of hunger, poverty, and homelessness in Alberta by forming a united community."

On top of the community events that he hosts, Johnstone also travels to schools and events across western Canada as a motivational speaker to share his story and various experiences.

His work also includes leading an inner city help program, where he and his group of volunteers distribute meals and supplies to Edmonton's homeless community every month.

Johnstone has also advocated for other social issues and programs such as adequate protection and resources for domestic abuse victims, supporting LGBTQ rights and freedoms, initiating a basic income for Canadians, and defending and investing in social housing projects for seniors and low-income families.

Johnstone was born in Edmonton, Alberta on July 31, 1987, during the notorious Edmonton tornado that claimed 27 lives, and he is the eldest son of Pamela Johnstone.

Growing up in a single mother household along with his brother, they were often dependent on local charities such as the Christmas Bureau, the Adopt-A-Teen campaign, and the Edmonton Food Bank.

After high school, Johnstone studied at MacEwan University for a year before leaving after his mother fell ill.

Johnstone's activism and philanthropy work began in Edmonton in the June 2011, when he began going door-to-door around various neighbourhoods by himself collecting food and clothing donations for various charities, such as the Edmonton Food Bank, the youth shelter, and various homeless shelters and soup kitchens.

In June 2021, Johnstone announced that his 10 years of fundraising and activism as "Can Man Dan" has raised $4.4 million for people in need across Alberta.

While Johnstone hosts many community events around Alberta, he is perhaps best known for his annual Christmas campaign, where every December, Johnstone camps out for weeks in the back of a tractor-trailer, aiming to fill it with food and toy donations for children and families in need.

Due to the severity of the winters commonly found in Alberta, and the freezing cold temperatures that go along with them, these campouts have become highly publicized and staple events for many charities and other grassroots programs.

Can Man Dan's holiday campaign has raised millions of dollars in funding and resources for various charities and people in need across Alberta.

Johnstone has also hosted many other charitable events around Alberta, including his annual "We're Here For Ya Day" event, where he offers free hair services, a barbecue meals, personal hygiene products, school supplies, fresh bread, and food hampers to thousands of low-income individuals.

In June 2013, Can Man Dan provided immediate assistance to Calgary's Food Bank and those affected by the 2013 Alberta floods in the form of 5000 pounds of food.

In both December 2013 and December 2014, local Edmonton chain restaurant, Delux Burger Bar, featured Can Man Dan as their "Celebrity Chef."

Delux Burger Bar locations across Edmonton added the Can Man Dan burger to their menus, and gave a portion of sales to the Edmonton Food Bank on Dan's behalf.

Dan also arranged to have the Can Man Dan burger served to hundreds of Edmonton's homeless & less fortunate as he hosted "Burger Night" at one of Edmonton's local homeless shelters.

Johnstone made headlines in April 2014 after he announced that he would wrestle in a professional wrestling match with Canadian wrestling promotion, the PWA (The Prairie Wrestling Alliance) to raise money, food and awareness for Edmonton's homeless youth population.

Despite suffering a fractured nose during the bout, Johnstone ultimately won his debut wrestling match raising thousands of dollars and thousands of pounds of food for Edmonton's Youth Empowerment and Support Services (YESS), an organization that Dan's mother had used when she was a teenager.

In the spring of 2015, Johnstone started a new community project aimed to help struggling locally owned businesses attain new customers called "Localive".

In the summer of 2015, Johnstone was voted in by Edmonton's general public to serve as an honorary parade marshal for their annual K-Days festival parade.

Johnstone, along with five other community heroes and various departments of Edmonton's first responders, were made honorary parade marshals and each given $2500 to donate to a charity of their choice.

In November 2015, a press release was issued announcing that Johnstone was made honorary chairman and official ambassador for Edmonton's Adopt-A-Teen program, a social program that Dan and his family used when he was growing up.

Since being made Adopt-A-Teen's honorary chairman in 2015, Johnstone has helped provide thousands of low-income and underprivileged teenagers with a $50 gift card for Christmas.

Johnstone made national headlines in December 2015 as he announced that he would spend the month touring Alberta and camping out in various cities to raise resources for multiple food banks across the province affected by the economic downturn.

Johnstone's "Tour of Alberta" raised 25 tonnes of food and thousands of dollars for various food banks throughout Alberta to distribute to people in need.

In May 2016, Johnstone revealed that he and his mother were former victims of domestic abuse and that he was starting a thirty-five-day campaign to raise awareness for domestic abuse victims and raise money for a local women's shelter (WIN House) in Edmonton.

Johnstone's campaign consisted of completing six "extreme and wacky" stunts around Edmonton, which were intended to raise awareness and money.

Johnstone's stunts included wrestling in a professional wrestling match against Ring Of Honor's Silas Young, becoming an Edmonton Eskimos cheerleader for a day, and undergoing intense police training with Edmonton Police Services, among other things.

In December 2016, Johnstone embarked on his "Feed Alberta Tour" hoping to raise food and funds for various food banks across Alberta that were hit hard due to the ongoing recession.

Johnstone travelled to the cities that were most affected by the stagnant economy and camped out in freezing cold temperatures for several days on end.

Johnstone's "Feed Alberta Tour" raised more than 50 000 pounds of food and close to $20 000 in cash donations.

One month after its initial release in December 2016, Dan personally paid for forty low-income single parents and their children to watch Rogue One in theatres.

Dan cited that Star Wars was one of his favorite movie franchises and he believed that all children should have the opportunity to watch it.

In March 2017, Dan publicly urged Edmonton's city council to use a $38 million snow-removal surplus on renovating and restoring Edmonton's low-income housing units.

In May 2017, Can Man Dan took 55 students from a local Catholic elementary school to Edmonton's inner-city streets to pass out hundreds of care packages filled with food, personal hygiene products, and socks to the city's homeless and most vulnerable.

In November 2017, Dan announced that he was hosting the "Can Man Dan City-Wide Food Drive" to replenish Edmonton's struggling local food bank, which was seeing record high usage at the time.