The Icelandic Canadian - 01.03.1968, Síða 2

This bust of Vilhjalmur Stefansson was paid for by the Icelandic community through
voluntary subscriptions. On February 27 this year, Education Minister George Johnson
received it on behalf of the Province of Manitoba at a fitting ceremony in the Legis-
lative Building. It was then escorted to the new Manitoba Centennial Centre, there to
remain on display as a permanent memento of one of Manitoba’s famous sons.
Vilhjalmur Stefansson, explorer, scientist, lecturer, and author, did more than any
other man to explore Canada’s Arctic regions and to bring them forcefully to the at-
tention of Canadians and of the world. He headed three Arctic expeditions that took
up most of the years 1906—1918. He wrote innumerable articles about the Arctic for
geographical and scientific magazines. He lectured widely throughout Canada and the
United States on the same subject. Among his many books we find such works as “The
Friendly Arctic”, and “The Northward Course of Empire”, where he gives expression to
his vision of the North. Through two world wars he was adviser to governments on
geographic and survival problems in the Arctic.
Stefansson spent most of his long life (1879-1962) in the Canadian Arctic and the
United States; but he was born into an Icelandic immigrant family at Arnes, on the
shores of Lake Winnipeg. There, with provincial and federal funds, a Stefansson Park
is to be developed as a suitable memorial to this famous native of Manitoba.
LABATT MANITOBA BREWERY (1966) LTD.