Winnipeg's Golden Boy
Broadcast Date: Feb. 9, 2002
Gleaming and youthful, it bears a sheaf of wheat in one hand and a torch in the other, looking north to Manitoba's many natural resources. Since 1919 the Golden Boy has stood high over the provincial legislature in Winnipeg, and after eight decades the statue needs a makeover. Time has dulled its coat of gold leaf, and the elements have weakened its structural support. In this 2002 CBC-TV report, Winnipeggers brave the cold to watch the delicate task of lowering the Golden Boy from its 70-metre-high perch.Winnipeg's Golden Boy
• The Golden Boy was extraordinarily lucky. After being cast in a French foundry in 1918, it narrowly avoided destruction when the foundry was bombed during the First World War. It was then loaded onto a cargo ship, but before it could leave port, the ship was commandeered to carry troops. Deep in the cargo hold, the Golden Boy crossed the Atlantic several times before being safely delivered to Halifax and making the trip by train to Winnipeg.• The torch was wired with an electric cable and outfitted with a light to mark Canada's Centennial year, and was first illuminated on Dec. 31, 1966. Conservators examining the statue in 2002 discovered that the holes that had been drilled to accommodate the wiring allowed in moisture that severely corroded the statue. The holes were filled in and the light was not replaced.
• About 114,000 people came to see the Golden Boy up close when it was on display for six weeks at the Manitoba Museum in 2002.
Many Manitoba towns boast large roadside attractions. Among them are:
• An 24-metre-tall easel in Altona
• A painted turtle in Boissevain
• The "Happy Rock" (a boulder painted with a smiling face) in Gladstone
• A garter snake statue in Inwood
• The Komarno mosquito
• A statue of fictional adventurer Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin in Flin Flon. Flonatin is the lead character in The Sunless City, a 1905 science fiction novel found by two prospectors in the Manitoba wilderness in 1913. When they discovered a vein of copper there a year later, they named their claim for the character, shortening it to Flin Flon.
Winnipeg's Golden Boy
Medium: Television
Program: The National
Broadcast Date: Feb. 9, 2002
Guest(s): Steve Ashton, Robert Burfoot , Leonard Copetti
Reporter: Jo Lynn Sheane
Duration: 2:29
Last updated:
Aug. 28, 2009
Winnipeg's Golden Boy .
The CBC Digital Archives Website.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Last updated: Aug. 28, 2009.
[Page consulted on Feb. 13, 2012.]