For the second year in a row and only the second time since he was married, federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz is offering to shave off his trademark mustache to support cancer research.
It is part of the worldwide Movember movement to raise money for the global fight against prostate cancer and to promote mental health among men. Last year, hundreds of thousands signed up to either grow a mustache or shave an existing one.
They raised $125.7 million in countries around the globe.
Prostate cancer is the most common form of men’s cancer in Canada, affecting one in seven men.
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The 61-year-old Saskatchewan MP with a prominent bristle said last week he will shave it off at the end of November if sponsors Chicken Farmers of Canada, Egg Farmers of Canada, Canadian Hatching Egg Producers and Turkey Farmers of Canada can raise at least $25,000.
Last year, with a $15,000 goal, the Ritz campaign raised $16,500.
He went to a downtown Ottawa barber shop, cameras and reporters in tow, to have his decades-old mustache shaved off.
Ritz said in a sponsors’ announcement that with the sharply higher fund-raising goal, he hopes to keep his mustache “firmly in place.”
Leaders of the supply management sponsors urged their farmer members to contribute to the cause.
