MANITOULIN—Social media sensation Lucky the Lobster made a stop on the world’s largest freshwater island last week on his cross-Canada odyssey, en route home to his family in Alberta.
Getting the cute, plush critter from A to B is no easy feat. He even comes equipped with a full-size lobster trap/cage.
Elizabeth Beattie of Honora Bay was scrolling Facebook one morning when she happened upon a post from a family in Meaford asking for help getting Lucky from Tobermory to Manitoulin Island. She recalled thinking ‘that’s interesting,’ and kept on scrolling. The thought of helping Lucky was intriguing, though, and thinking it might be a fun activity for her two-year-old son Wren and mom Bonnie to take part in, she booked them all a walk-on ticket for the ferry and made arrangements to meet the Kaminski family and Lucky in Tobermory.
“They were pretty sad to see him go,” Ms. Beattie said, noting that they had the stuffed lobster for about a week and brought him on several adventures, including a visit to the Chapman’s ice cream plant.
Ms. Beattie stuffed the massive trap into her Honda Civic in South Baymouth on August 6 and they set out to show off Manitoulin.
Lucky began his journey on April 29 in Charlottetown, PEI. Well, “began” might be a bit of an overstatement. He sat and waited for a friend to come along and give him a lift for two-and-a-half months.
Lucky belongs to Chris and Karen McCallum of Okotoks, Alberta. Lucky is a second generation travelling lobster, Lucky 2.0. The couple first attempted sending a lobster from PEI (1.0 was a plastic model) to Alberta in 2009, before the serious help of social media. He made it to Ontario, then ended up in Chicago, but Chi-town is where his journey ended.
“The last we saw of him was a photo of him at a bus stop,” the McCallums tell The Expositor. He was never heard from again.
The McCallums are frequent visitors to PEI as Mr. McCallum’s parents are from the island province. They were there in April when they decided to take another stab at sending a lobster across Canada, based only on the kindness of strangers. This time the lobster is plush and an open-thorax surgery placed an AirTag inside so they can always see where he is. (The cage comes equipped with a QR code that links to a video of the couple explaining the odyssey.)
Mr. McCallum explained the couple was staying at a boutique hotel in Charlottetown when they approached the owner to see if they could leave Lucky on display in the hopes that someone would pick him up on his first leg. The owner agreed, but there he sat. Friends of the McCallums were going to be in Charlottetown a couple of months later so they were tasked with bringing the lobster to Moncton where they left him at the famous anchor at Moncton’s Tidal Bore. It was there that someone saw him, made a TikTok and the rest is, well, history. Lucky’s journey began in earnest on July 16, the day of the first TikTok video.
Ms. Beattie, a Kindergarten teacher at Shawanosowe School in Birch Island, said she saw this as a good exercise in, as the McCallums said, the kindness of strangers. She was amazed at how many people she met in her brief time with Lucky. People would see the cage, wanted to come and chat and were quick to open up about their own lives. “It just piqued everyone’s curiosity,” she said.
Ms. Beattie said she felt a kinship with Lucky. As a teenager, she took part in the Katimavik program and took her Grade 12 year off to travel the country on her own, something she felt stood her in good stead as a change to grow into the woman she is today.
“(Lucky) is going to make it home—his trip doesn’t have to be linear,” she smiled.
“It’s been an absolute riot,” the McCallums said from their Okotoks home. “Followers from around the world are watching and getting a good snapshot of what Canada is like—the world is watching.”
Lucky has been to a scallop festival, driven a race car, hung out with the RCMP, been vet-checked, gone roller skating, climbed the CN Tower, partook in a karaoke night, did a “lobster shot” and visited Manitoulin Island.
The McCallums hope to pen a children’s book about Lucky’s adventure following his return home.
There are also t-shirts for sale that read ‘I Got Lucky Across Canada’ available for $20, the proceeds of which are going to help victims of the Jasper wildfire and also the PEI lobster fishery.
As Lucky makes his way across Northern Ontario, the hype keeps building.
“People in Manitoba are going nuts,” Ms. McCallum said. And in Saskatchewan, one Lucky follower is hoping to bring him to a Metallica concert where, hopefully, he’ll meet the band.
“Sometimes social media can have a negative rep—keyword courage—and be detrimental to communities, but we’ve seen how it can be strengthening for community,” Mr. McCallum said. “Fellow Canadians have had fun, and in a goofy way. It reaffirms how great Canadians are.”
To follow Lucky the Lobster, follow the LobsterQuest TikTok page or search the hashtags Lucky the Lobster and Lobster Quest From East to West 2.0.
