Tom Lamb, Bush Pilot

Location: ground floor, 777 Bay St.
Date photo taken: 14 Jan 2014

With the cold weather we've been having of late I'm spending a lot more time exploring the indoor spaces of our city and finding interesting things every where I look. While I'd noticed this figure before, I had never stopped to read the plaque. From a distance, I had assumed it was an Inuit figure. Turns out it's a sculpture of Tom Lamb, a legendary bush pilot whose company, Lambair, flew for 46 years without ever suffering a fatality. Their motto was "Do not ask us where we fly, tell us where you want to go." CBC's Telescope did a profile on the flying Lambs back in 1966, by which point Tom had been joined in the business by all six of his sons. The Western Canada Aviation Museum also has a page on Lamb on their website, with a great story about one of his trickier cargoes.

The artist is Leo Mol, a Ukrainian Canadian who is known as much for his work in stained glass as for his sculpture. Over 300 of his works, including one very much like this, can be found in the Leo Mol Sculpture Garden in Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg, which Mol called home.