The Safe Boating Council launched its "Hooked On Lifejackets" campaign on Canada Day. Christopher Love, Water Smart Public Education Coordinator for the Lifesaving Society of Manitoba, says the campaign is in conjunction with National Fishing Week, which runs from July 1st through the 9th. Love notes year to year across Canada approximately 75 percent of boating fatalities involve people who were not wearing their lifejacket. He says here in Manitoba the statistics are even worse, adding in 2014 basically all of the people involved in fatal boating accidents in our province were not wearing lifejackets.

Love notes there is an unfortunate trend where the kids on a boat may be wearing lifejackets but the adults are not. He says legally you're required to have an appropriately sized lifejacket for every single person on your boat, but the law doesn't require you to wear them. Love adds they're hoping everyone will take that extra step and stay safe. He says he would challenge folks to go to a pool or a lake, walk out into water which is slightly over your head, and try to put your lifejacket on. Love notes once you're in the water, especially if you're scared or struggling following a capsizing, it's very difficult to get that lifejacket on. He adds it's much easier to put it on in advance, because it'll keep your head above water so you can breathe and think about how to get yourself out of trouble.

Love says another thing to consider is that if your lifejacket is lying in the bottom of the boat when the vessel flips, you could be thrown in one direction and your lifejacket might end up being tossed in an entirely different direction. He notes it's best to make it a habit to don your lifejacket as soon you get into your boat, adding parents can be good role models for their kids by putting their own lifejackets on after ensuring their children are wearing them, too. For more information, you can visit www.lifesaving.mb.ca or call the Lifesaving Society at 204-956-2124.