For many young people across Vancouver, a summer job at the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) is a time-honoured rite of passage.
This year, East Vancouver’s most famous crow will join the club, with a paid gig at the city’s long-running summer fair.
Coverage of Canuck the Crow on Globalnews.ca:
Canuck the Crow, who has become famous for his interest in humans, shiny objects and fast food has been a regular sight at the amusement park for several years.
Now, after Canuck has essentially job shadowed everyone from the candy attendants to the maintenance crews, the PNE has decided to hire him on full time – with an hourly wage of $12.27.
“We just liked having him around, so we’ve now given him a job at Playland,” PNE food and beverage manager Loredana Udovicic said.
“He loves cotton candy. I think it’s the bright colors, he just goes in there. He can be a candy attendant.”
Udovicic has had dozens of run-ins with Canuck in the last two years, and said the curious corvid has tried to make off with everything from pens to keys in the past.
“He would actually fly randomly into my locations, including my office if you leave windows open, and he likes to pluck the keys off the keyboard,” she said.
She said having to explain how a crow had stolen her computer keys led to some awkward and somewhat incredulous conversations with the PNE’s management and IT department.
But Canuck’s propensity for stealing apparently hasn’t hurt his charm for some people.
“The locals that know who he is, that recognize the [red band around his foot], they try to take pictures with him, and they try to pick him up,” Udovicic said.
But Canuck won’t be spending the dough he earns at the nearby McDonald’s he’s been known to frequent.
Instead, the $1,000 he’ll earn will be donated to the Night Owl Bird Hospital in Kitsilano, where he was cared for last spring after being attacked by a man with a flagpole while visiting Adanac Park.
The PNE gig adds another line to Canuck’s already impressive resume.
The plucky crow has been the subject of multiple media features, and has his own Twitter and Facebook accounts.
He’s been spotted riding the SkyTrain, and even disrupting a crime scene in East Vancouver.
Most recently, Canuck made headlines after he bit a Canada Post employee, prompting the postal service to temporarily halt delivery to a neighbourhood near the PNE.
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