@canada.gov.ca’s accidental archivist John Batt is reshaping Canadian culture

There's something charmingly subversive about a guy who quit his job to post about forgotten corners of Canadian culture on Instagram. 

Working out of his cottage in the Laurentians where he recently relocated from Montreal, John Batt has built an unlikely career as the admin of @canada.gov.ca: Celebrating the weird and wonderful patchwork of regional oddities that form the true fabric of Canadian identity—even if he may not put it in such grandiose terms.

The strangest tour guide

"I'm interested in the quirkier side of Canadian history, arts and culture," says Batt, who’s amassed nearly 100,000 followers through an oddly compelling mix of obscure cultural ephemera, forgotten historical footnotes, and the occasional shirtless photo of Ron MacLean or David Suzuki.