Coronavirus: T-shirts with portraits of Canada’s top doctors on sale for charity

A Calgary business has released three limited edition T-shirts featuring some of Canada’s top doctors, who have become the faces of government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Madame Premier, in collaboration with Sophie Grace, has produced shirts featuring Alberta’s chief health officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw, B.C.’s chief health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, and Canada’s chief health officer Dr. Theresa Tam.

Madame Premier founder Sarah Elder-Chamanara says the idea came from Emma May of Sophie Grace, who suggested they produce a shirt featuring a portrait of Hinshaw that artist Mandy Stobo shared on social media.

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It’s Thursday night! We made it to Friday and everything has changed for all of us. We are stronger. We will be better. We will rebuild in so many new ways that we don’t know right now. In the meantime, a big shoutout goes out to the courage and clarity of our Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Deena Hinshaw. Thank you for all you are doing. You are handling the unknown with grace, integrity and such leadership. Bad Portrait Time! I’ll be making this drawing available to anyone that wants it just send me a DM. Let’s continue to build community and ride this wave into the best possible place we can take it. #badportraits #covid19 #stoboart #drhinshaw #contemporaryart #portraits #illustration #community #art #besafe

A post shared by mandy stobo (@badportraits) on Mar 19, 2020 at 10:09pm PDT

Stobo was then asked to create portraits of Henry and Tam.

Net proceeds will be going to charities in the doctors’ provinces.

The three health officers have become leaders the public turns to for reassurance and facts, she says, presented in a calm, professional manner.

“All three of them have been steadfast in their leadership and their medical capabilities and their ability to give the public confidence that the province and the federal government have a handle on things.”

She says the T-shirts align with Madame Premier’s core mission of supporting the increased inclusion of women and diversity in politics.

26:38 Extended: One-on-one with Dr. Bonnie Henry

“It is still too common that we don’t see enough women on TV in different capacities,” Elder-Chamanara says.

“Little girls will be able to see themselves potentially as a Dr. Hinshaw or a Dr. Henry or a Dr. Tam and I think that’s incredible because that’s what they need to see to help them believe that that’s possible for themselves.”