The Walrus has enlisted a group of high profile Canadians to plea for readers, subscribers and donations.

In a video released by the magazine Monday and posted at WalrusMagazine.ca, Canadian celebrities like Atom Egoyan and Margaret Atwood, list reasons why Canada needs The Walrus.

“We need a magazine about us,” says actor Albert Schultz. The spot jumps from one celebrity to the next, with each speaker’s statement leading to the next.

The spot ends with MTV Canada host Jessi Cruickshank, who says, “because without it…” and walks away from the camera in silence before the super “We lose a Canadian voice” appears.

This is the second video the magazine has posted asking for assistance. In May, publisher Shelley Ambrose released a three-minute video explaining the magazine’s position as a non-profit and how it has been hit by the recession.

Ambrose said Shelley Lewis of Suneeva Films offered to create a public service announcement style video for the magazine after she saw the initial public plea for help.

“After [the first video] Shelley Lewis came to us and said ‘That was cute, but we could do better,’ ” Ambrose said.

Ambrose sent a note to some prominent “friends of The Walrus” explaining the concept and asking them to participate.

She said the magazine sought a diverse group of celebrities to reflect its wide-ranging readership.

Filmmaker Bruce MacDonald, Rush’s Geddy Lee, Brendan Canning and Lisa Lobsinger of Broken Social Scene, and fashion designer Jeremy Laing are also in the video. Other Canadian celebs like Rick Mercer, Paul Gross and Molly Johnson agreed to participate, but weren’t available on the day of the shoot, said Ambrose.

The Walrus plans to use the video for many of its sales initiatives, and is hoping it will attract donors, sponsors and advertisers as well as readers and subscribers, said Ambrose.

One of the goals of the video was to convey that The Walrus is a non-profit venture. Unlike consumer magazines, the magazine’s mandate  is to “encourage the public discourse that is vital to Canadians,” not to make money, she said.

Instead, the magazine relies on a mix of ad revenue, subscription and newsstand sales, donations and fund raising. At 60,000 subscribers, Ambrose said The Walrus’ readership has never been stronger. But when the recession hit, the magazine lost a huge portion of its income.

“What changed was the ad revenue,” she said, explaining that in spring the magazine predicted it’s annual ad revenue of about $1 million would be down by about 50% this year.

Both TVO and BNN are running the ad as a PSA, and the magazine is spreading the video virally through Twitter and Facebook. It’s also reaching out to its subscribers and asking them to share the video with friends.