What Canadian men told us this year
The “fine” reflex is universal
Almost every Canadian man we spoke with this year said the same thing in different words: “I have been saying I am fine for so long I forgot what the truth sounds like.” Canadian men are not afraid of feeling. They are afraid of being seen feeling. We wrote about that pattern in Why Men Mask Mental Health.
The first sentence is the hardest one
Per the Canadian Men’s Health Foundation’s 2025 Canadian Men’s Health Study (Intensions Consulting, n=2,000), nearly 2 in 3 Canadian men have never used mental health services. For many men, the issue is not whether they want help, it is that the first conversation is the hardest one. We dug into that in how we started real conversations with men in 2025.
Local hand-offs save lives
Pointing a Canadian man to a national crisis line is necessary. Pointing him to a person in his city is what actually moves him forward. We rebuilt our Resources page around that.
The Canadian numbers we monitor
- Approximately 4,000 Canadians die by suicide each year, per the Public Health Agency of Canada each year, per the Mental Health Commission of Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada.
- Roughly 75% of those deaths are men, per Statistics Canada.
- Nearly 2 in 3 Canadian men have never used mental health services, per the Canadian Men’s Health Foundation 2025 Study.
- 64% of Canadian men in that same study report moderate-to-high stress.
What is next
June 2026, our biggest swing
our #BeTheFlare campaign for June 2026 runs all of Men’s Mental Health Month. Inside the month sit Men’s Mental Health Week (June 9 to 15), Men’s Mental Health Awareness Day (June 13), and PTSD Awareness Month with National PTSD Awareness Day on June 27.
Provincial coverage
We expanded provincial guides this year for Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario, and Manitoba. More provinces this year.
Thank you
To every Canadian man who shared a story, every reader who forwarded a post, every partner who linked us. Year 3 belonged to you. If you want to be part of June 2026, our Speak Up page is the door. If you need help right now, call or text 988 to reach Talk Suicide Canada free, 24/7, anywhere in Canada.
Sources: Mental Health Commission of Canada, Statistics Canada, Public Health Agency of Canada, Canadian Men’s Health Foundation 2025 Canadian Men’s Health Study (Intensions Consulting, n=2,000).
