Video taking off 44x its usual first day

Canmore teens built a Halloween tank around a potato gun

CTV News's report reveals a cardboard-and-wood vehicle with an electric motor, working cameras and a brief encounter with the RCMP.

Channel:

CTV News Story of November 13, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 81,784 views a day, 44 times a normal first day on this channel (1,852).

Canmore teens build giant tank for Halloween

What did you think?

The potato gun came first. Then its teenage builders needed somewhere to mount it, and a group project in Canmore, Alberta, grew into a rideable, life-sized mock tank.

"We had a potato gun, and we needed something to mount it on. So we built the tank," one of the builders explains in CTV News's report, "Canmore teens build giant tank for Halloween."

That wonderfully matter-of-fact explanation sits behind nearly a year's work and hundreds of hours of construction. Beneath the tank's exterior are a wooden frame, a cardboard shell and an electric motor. Working lights, cameras and a rotating base make this rather more involved than a costume you pull over your head.

The report has passed 100,000 views, with an estimated first-day audience more than forty times the usual start for a CTV News Short. A separate upload carrying the same title also drew an unusually large first-day audience.

The homemade vehicle can reach 15 km/h, according to the report, with a battery bank powering its motor. One co-builder says its Halloween outing suggested the batteries could keep it moving for quite a while.

The RCMP did stop the tank downtown because it wasn't street legal, CTV reports, but issued no tickets. The builders' next project calls for another skill: they plan to learn welding so they can make a metal version.

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What viewers say

It is wonderful to see a homemade costume. Well done.
@ebby0808See it on YouTube
I love how they started with just a pipe and built a tank for said pipe 😅
@elzach0See it on YouTube
More news like this please! This is awesome
@mishahlamazda5812See it on YouTube

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