Flintabbatey Flonatin has been named Manitoba’s top roadside attraction.
Flinty beat out Glenboro’s Sara the Camel in the final round of a week-long online contest put on by Travel Manitoba.
Flin Flonners clicked away as the portly prospector earned 52 per cent of the votes to win bragging rights over Sara.
Travel Manitoba social media specialist Kirsten Neil says when the agency started the bracket contest she thought Flinty would go far, but didn’t have a specific winner pegged.
“We knew Flinty was a big contender, but you never know which one [is] going to come out on top,” she said. “We were surprised at Sara the Camel.”
Icons
Travel Manitoba selected 32 Manitoba roadside attractions to see which icon was the must-see of the season.
“We just went with hilarious matchups,” Neil told The Reminder. “There were no rules, we just had fun with it. We didn’t think it would take off this big.”
The final round of voting, which ended last Thursday, March 26, at midnight, saw more than 7,000 votes cast between Flinty and Sara – with Flin Flon’s mascot winning by 247 tallies.
Flinty put up a good fight throughout the whole contest, but Sara also made a big impact on the voters.
From a town of fewer than 700 people, the towering camel statue fought her way past bigger towns each step of the way.
“There were a few big towns that were taken out by small towns,” said Neil. “There were some interesting battles. It’s fabulous to see communities getting behind their icon.”
As a native of Gimli, Neil had high hopes for Gimli’s Viking or Gladstone’s Happy Rock, both of which draw photo-snapping tourists.
Though Travel Manitoba isn’t planning another roadside attractions contest in the near future, Neil says the fun campaign did reach its goal.
“It was just for fun and bragging rights,” she said. “We’ll do something different in the future. It just seemed to hit at the right time.”
Flinty first took down Alpine Archie from McCreary before moving on to Dauphin’s Beaver for his second win.
Flinty was pitted against the Viking from Gimli and came out on top with 53 per cent of the votes.
Flin Flon’s statue also went up against the Viking Ship from Erickson and won with 64 per cent of the votes.
From there, Flinty moved on to the finals versus Sara the Camel. It was the closest race he faced as he received 3,687 votes to Sara’s 3,440.
