Barenaked Ladies fans who support the group's upcoming winter tour will also be supporting Canada's Olympic and Paralympic winter athletes.

For every ticket sold during the tour, which begins on Jan. 31, 50 cents will be donated to Own the Podium 2010, an initiative dedicated to helping more Canadian athletes achieve medals at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

"We should be owning the winter Olmpics," said Ed Robertson, vocalist and guitar player for the band.

"We're the land of ice and snow ... and the truth is our bronze medalists can be silver medalists, our silver medalists could be gold medalists, and our gold medalists could be platinum medalists," he joked with CTV's Andria Case during a promotional event in Toronto.

The news comes as music to the ears of Canadian athletes, who are already seeing the benefits of the Own the Podium program.

"I know that for myself it's been a huge help in the sense I know I can just go somewhere that has the best facilities and not really worry about the cost of private coaching or the cost of other things that come along the way. So it really enables us to focus on just what we need to do to win," said Deidre Dionne, a 2002 bronze medal winner in freestyle aerials.

Canada met its goals for the Torino Games, achieving a third-place finish with a total medal count of 24 -- its best performance ever at the Winter Olympics.

The goal for 2010 is to own the podium and finish first. To do that, the Canadian Olympic Committee estimates Canada will have to win 35 medals.

The program, which started in January 2004, will put an additional $110 million into Canada's sport system over five years.