Les Costello

Charlie Angus

Les Costello's story is the stuff of Canadian myth: a child of immigrant parents who finds fame and some fortune on the ice as a star on the Toronto Maple Leafs, with whom he wins the coveted Stanley Cup. At the height of his meteoric sports career, he gives it all up to pursue another dream: to become a parish priest in the northern mining community where he was raised. He quickly earns the respect and love of the community due to his blunt, plainspoken, passionate commitment to social justice. He also creates discomfort in the Catholic establishment with his unconventional and challenging approach to parish life.

Les Costello became most widely known through his involvement in the Flying Fathers. Begun as a one-off prank, the hockey team he founded, comprised of priests, became a huge success. Throughout the 1970's and 1980's the team traveled across Canada raising millions of dollars for charities.

Les Costello: Canada's Flying Father is the biography of a tough-talking, justice-seeking, fiery man of deep spirituality who reinvents himself by converting the skills and stamina of an athlete into the lifelong vocation of the truly inspired pastoral leader. 

CHARLIE ANGUS is the founder and editor of The High Grader -the magazine about life in Northern Ontario. He is the Member of Parliament for Timmins-James Bay.