VANCOUVER -- Whitney McCormick knows exactly what he likes: candy, lawnmowers and Dr. Bonnie Henry.
The two-year-old Victoria boy's affection for B.C.'s provincial health officer started sometime amid the COVID-19 pandemic, while watching her regular briefings before his nap.
"He would be talking about her all day long. Like, what she was doing, if she was sleeping like he was going to sleep," Naomi McCormick told CTV News.
"Her voice is just so calm and soothing that I think it was just an easier time for him to wake up."
The McCormicks are finding Whitney's enthusiasm for Dr. Henry helpful to give their children a better understanding of what's happening, though Naomi said no one's as enthusiastic as the adults about a vaccine.
Whitney has different interests in mind.
Naomi said one day Whitney woke up at 6 a.m., "as two-year-olds do."
"His first request was that we find a picture of Dr. Henry riding a riding lawnmower because his other love is lawnmowers, so he basically combines all of his loves together into one thing."
Looking online, Naomi found an artist who would work on a special project for the boy.
A one-of-a-kind Dr. Henry doll was crafted for Whitney, complete with her signature statement necklace and designer John Fluevog shoes.
"The day that it arrived, he threw every stuffy out of his crib and put Dr. Henry in there," Naomi said.
Whitney isn't quite old enough to understand that while he can see Henry on TV, she can't see him.
"He would be over the moon if Dr. Henry sent him a 'hello,'" Naomi said.
Little Whitney is not the doctor's only fan.
From hats to tea towels to stickers to T-shirts, fan art honouring Henry has been popping up across the province this year.
A Vancouver Island man created a Dr. Henry Fan Club Twitter account, and Fluevog created and named a shoe after her after noticing her love of the brand.
Multiple song parodies have been posted online, and the doctor was featured in the New York Times in June.
With a report from CTV News Vancouver Island's Eric Lloyd and files from CTV News Vancouver's Alyse Kotyk