By James Bowler

VIDEO: ‘Heave Steve’ gains traction across Canada

Apr 13, 2015 | 12:25 PM

A Prince Albert federal NDP candidate has come up with a toe-tapping new campaign idea that has really taken off.

Lon Borgerson recently released a video on YouTube of himself along with family, friends and supporters singing a new song written and composed by himself and his wife Val Drummond.

According to Borgerson, it all started with two words. 

“I woke up one morning with two words floating through my mind, ‘Heave Steve’, I’d heard that once or twice before,” said Borgerson. “I just started thinking about those two words and it kind of evolved into a line and then it evolved into a chorus, and my wife, Val, got involved and the next thing you knew we had versus for it.”

Borgerson said with the help of friends it slowly fleshed out into a full song.

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He said that next came the idea to bring a bunch of friends and supporters together to record a music video of sorts to share on social media.

“I had been approached by someone who does production, who offered his services anytime we wanted to do something,” said Borgerson. “He came up and we taped the song here with about 30 people in our house, and the result is the ‘Heave Steve’ video.”

The video was uploaded to YouTube and Facebook and has more than 16,000 views so far on the video website.

In the video the hashtag #HeaveSteve is shown a few times, and on Twitter that hashtag has started to gain traction as well.

Borgerson said he’s received such a wide range of positive response to the video.

“Not only in the Prince Albert area but actually from people right across the country,” said Borgerson. “The local Council of Canadians, I see, have responded to it and many have posted it on their websites and Facebook sites.”

Borgerson said that while it’s a fun poke at Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the lyrics do present a serious tone of the issues that Canada is facing in his eyes.

He added social media has played such an important factor in helping spread that message.

“For me it’s all about approaching politics in a new and better way using social media,” he said.  “And also I think people get tired of the old politics, so something that’s full of some creativity and some humor and music, I think that’s why people are responding so well to it.”

jbowler@panow.com

On Twitter: @journalistjim