Museum sights in Ontario
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Canadian Museum of Civilization
This must-see museum documents the history of Canada through a spectacular range of exhibits. The stone exterior has been sculpted into smooth ripples – like the undulating wave of a current. In fact, you won’t find any corners at the museum, as it is believed in aboriginal lore that the evil spirits live in these angled nooks. Allow at least an entire afternoon to explore the museum and to take in the stunning views of the Parliament across the river.
The Grand Hall, with its simulated forest and seashore, illuminates the northwest coastal aboriginal cultures with towering colorful totem poles. Kids get a passport when they enter the Canadian Children’s Museum, a v…
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Canada Science & Technology Museum
This hands-on museum, about 6km southeast of downtown, is a wonderful place to tickle the senses. Ambient squeaks and boinks fill the air as contented visitors gingerly turn knobs and push buttons.
Clever displays are designed to teach visitors about the basic scientific laws that govern our world. Permanent collections explore optical illusions, the laws of physics, and Time, with a capital ‘T.’ A walk through the Crazy Kitchen is a must – the lopsided galley dips at a 10-degree angle causing passers-through to cling to the railings as they try to stumble from start to finish. Climb aboard the heavy-duty trains at the back of the museum to learn about the science beh…
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Royal Ontario Museum
The multidisciplinary ROM was already Canada’s biggest natural history museum, even before embarking upon the ‘Renaissance ROM’ building project, which should be complete by the time you read this. The new work involves a magnificent explosion of architectural crystals on Bloor St, housing an array of new galleries. ROM’s collections bounce between natural science, ancient civilization and art exhibits. The Chinese temple sculptures, Gallery of Korean Art and costumery and textile collections are some of the best in the world. Kids file out of yellow school buses chugging by the sidewalk and rush to the dinosaur rooms, Egyptian mummies and Jamaican bat-cave replica. Don’t…
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Dionne Quints Museum
North Bay has never seen the mining-related booms and busts inherent to most towns in northern Ontario. In fact, the area was rather unremarkable until five little girls briefly turned the city into the most visited destination in Ontario after Niagara Falls. These little girls were the Dionne Quints – identical quintuplets. Born during the Great Depression, they were exploited as a tourist attraction by the provincial government. Their fame became so widespread that they even starred in four Hollywood films. Today, the Dionne Quints Museum contains a fascinating collection of artifacts from their early years. (Their later years haven’t been such a happy story – growing u…
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Science North
This huge science center is a major regional attraction conspicuously housed in two snowflake-shaped buildings on the edge of Lake Ramsey. After passing through a tunnel dug deep within the 2.5-billion-year-old Canadian Shield, take the elevator to the top and work your way down through the spiral of exciting hands-on activities. Wander through a living butterfly garden, stargaze in the digital planetarium, explore rocks through a microscope, build an empire out of Lego or fly away on a bushplane simulator. The blue-coated staff are exceptionally friendly and can tackle the most obscure questions about the displays. Major exhibits change regularly, as do the films screene…
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Canada Agricultural Museum
Nope, the Canada Agricultural Museum isn’t about the history of the pitchfork – it’s a fascinating experimental farm. The government-owned property, southwest of downtown, includes about 500 hectares of gardens and ranches. Kids will love the livestock as they hoot and snort around the barn. The affable farmhands will even let the tots help out during feeding time. Guided tours lead visitors to an observatory, a tropical greenhouse and an arboretum. The rolling farmland is the perfect place for a scenic summer picnic, and in winter the grounds become a prime tobogganing locale. The farm can be reached on the city’s network of cycling routes.
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Canadian War Museum
This museum still has that new-car smell. The metallic building is itself an eye-catching sculptural gesture, and is worth a glance even if you don’t plan on visiting the exhibits. Fascinating displays wind through the labyrinthine interior, tracing the country’s military history with Canada’s most comprehensive collection of military artifacts. Many of the exhibits were constructed on a human scale, including a haunting life-sized replica of a WWI trench. Don’t forget to take a second look at the facade in the evening – flickering lights pulse on and off spelling ‘Lest We Forget’ and ‘CWM’ in Morse code (in both English and French, of course).
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Hockey Hall of Fame
Inside an ornate rococo gray stone Bank of Montreal building (c 1885) on the Yonge St lower concourse, the Hockey Hall of Fame gives hockey fans everything they could possibly want. Check out the collection of Texas Chainsaw Massacre–esque goalkeeping masks, attempt to stop Wayne Gretzky’s virtual shot or have your photo taken with hockey’s biggest prize – the hefty Stanley Cup (no trifling shield or pint-sized urn for these boys, oh no). Even visitors unfamiliar with this super-fast, ultra-violent sport will be impressed with the interactive multimedia exhibits and hockey nostalgia.
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Canada Aviation and Space Museum
With nearly 120 aircraft housed in the steel triangular hangar, the aviation museum almost feels bigger than Ottawa’s actual airport. Stroll through the mammoth warehouse, try the flight simulator, and get up close and personal with colorful planes ranging from the Silver Dart of 1909 to the first turbo-powered Viscount passenger jet.
Call ahead to check opening hours, as they vary according to attendance levels and time of year. If you show up an hour before closing, you might be let in for free. The museum is 5km northeast (along Rockcliffe Pkwy). Take bus 129 from downtown.
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Canadian Bushplane Heritage Centre
A visit to the Soo’s most dynamic museum is an excellent way to learn about the idiosyncrasies of northern Ontario culture. A 20-minute film explains the importance of bushplanes in the region, as several remote communities are not accessible by road. The jiving soundtrack captures the sense of adventure associated with this oft-used form of transportation. Stroll amongst retired bushplanes to get a sense of how tiny these flyers really are. A flight simulator takes passengers on a spirited ride along sapphire lakes and towering pines (you might even get a little wet!).
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Canadian Museum of Nature
Sparkling after a massive, seemingly endless renovation, this vast museum pokes its Gothic head up just beyond the skyline, south of downtown. The gaping four-story museum houses an impressive collection of fossils, minerals and animals, a full skeleton of a blue whale, and an excellent stock of dinosaurs from Alberta. Everyone’s favorite section is the realistic mammal and bird dioramas depicting Canadian wildlife. The taxidermic creatures are so lifelike, you’ll be glad that they’re behind a sheet of glass.
Buses 5, 6 and 14 transport passengers to McLeod St.
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Ontario Science Centre
Climb a rock wall, journey to the center of a human heart, catch a criminal with DNA fingerprinting and race an Olympic bobsled at the excellent, interactive Ontario Science Centre. Over 800 high-tech exhibits and live demonstrations wow the kids (and the adults at the back, pretending not to be interested). Also here is the giant domed Omnimax Cinema. Check the website for family events, including theme-night sleepovers ($54, reservations required). Parking is $8. To get here, take the subway to Eglinton then bus 34, or Pape then bus 25.
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Canadian Broadcasting Centre
Toronto’s enormous Canadian Broadcasting Centre is the headquarters for English-language radio and TV across Canada. French-language production is in Montréal, which leaves the president (in a truly Canadian spirit of compromise) stranded in Ottawa. You can peek at the radio newsrooms anytime or attend a concert in the world-class Glenn Gould Studio. Don’t miss the miniature-sized CBC Museum with its amazing collection of antique microphones (the 1949 RCA 74DX is a doozy!), sound-effects machines, tape recorders and puppets from kids’ TV shows.
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Toronto's First Post Office
Dating from the 1830s, the old post office is now a living museum. After you've written your letter with a quill and ink, seal it with wax and send it postmarked 'York-Toronto 1833' for a small fee. Famous folks like William Lyon Mackenzie and the Baldwins once rented postal boxes here. At the back is an old-fashioned reading room with historical displays and a model of Toronto c 1833. Self-guided tour pamphlets are available at the door. Look for the British and Canadian flags flying out front, just west of the Bank of Upper Canada building.
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Redpath Sugar Museum
The working Redpath sugar refinery, a descendant of Canada's oldest refinery which opened in Montréal in 1854, wafts delicious sugary smells along Queens Quay E. Inside, a small museum tackles a variety of topics related to the social development and modern refining of sugar, with biographic information on founder John Redpath. A 15-minute film explains the modern refining process. Enter via the west gate near the foot of Yonge St, sign in at the security desk and follow the museum signs (watch out for trucks!).
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Spadina Museum
This gracious museum was built in 1866 as a country estate for financier James Austin and his family. Lit by Victorian gaslights, the interior contains three generations of furnishings, art and fabrics. The working kitchen hosts cooking demonstrations by costumed workers, while Edwardian Teas, strawberry festivals and summer concerts are held in the apple orchard. When we visited, the museum was closed for re-restoration and was set to open with new exhibits on the 1920s. Parking costs $8.25.
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Riverdale Farm
This farm was once the Toronto Zoo, where prairie wolves howled at night and spooked the Cabbagetown kids. It’s now run as a working-farm museum, with two barns, a summer wading pool, and pens of sundry fowl and animals (geese, goats, pigs, rabbits, turkeys etc). Kids follow the farmer around as he does his daily chores, including milking the cows at 10:30am. The Tuesday farmers’ market (3pm to 7pm May to October) features hippies selling organic goods and buskers playing Appalachian mountain dobros.
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Museum London
Focusing on the visual arts and how they fit together with history, Museum London has over 5000 works of art (including the largest collection of Paul Peel paintings) and an artifact collection of over 25,000 pieces. Exhibitions and programming are created around the stories of artifacts, and outdoor installations carry the stories beyond the walls. Also on-site is Eldon House, London’s oldest residence, which places you in the past rather than attempting to describe it.
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Dundurn Castle
A boxy, column-fronted, 36-room mansion, Dundurn Castle once belonged to Sir Allan Napier McNab, Canadian prime minister from 1854 to 1856. It sits on a cliff overlooking the harbor amid lovely chestnut-studded grounds, and is furnished in mid-19th-century style. Also on-site is the Hamilton Military Museum (adult/child/concession/family $3.50/2.50/3/8.50), with weapons and uniforms from the War of 1812 to WWI. Admission is free with Dundurn Castle admission.
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Sault Ste Marie Museum
Constructed in the old post office, this three-story museum details the town’s history through several perspectives. The Skylight Gallery is a must-see for industrial history buffs; an interactive timeline from prehistory to the 1960s incorporates the local historical society’s unique collection of preserved fossils and relics. Beyond the exhibits, the structure is itself an important historical tribute to the early 1900s, when little Sault Ste Marie emerged from obscurity.
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Mackenzie House
Built in 1858, this brown brick rowhouse was owned by William Lyon Mackenzie, the city's first mayor and the leader of the failed Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837. Inside is a museum, a re-created printshop and a gallery featuring changing exhibitions. Check out the brass door knocker, presented to Mackenzie in 1859 after his return from exile in America. Handmade 'Mackenzie: Rebel with a Cause' T-shirts and reproductions of the 'ye olde' variety are sold in the gift shop.
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Bytown Museum
Bytown Museum, sitting at the last lock before the artificial canal plunges into the waters of the Ottawa River. This well-curated collection of artifacts and documents about Ottawa’s colonial past is displayed in the city’s oldest stone building. The 1st floor is devoted to a nature exhibit, the 2nd floor details the arduous construction of the canal system, and, if you’ve got the kids in tow, don’t miss the pioneer dress-up station on the 3rd floor.
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Brantford Sports Hall of Recognition
The shining gem at the heart of the Gretzky Centre is the Brantford Sports Hall of Recognition. Memorabilia from dozens of local track-and-field, football, lacrosse and wrestling stars line the walls, but who wants to know about them? What you’re here for is Wayne ‘The Great One’ Gretzky’s permanent display. Gretz honed his game on the backyard hockey rink at his childhood Brantford home before shattering the NHL record books and blitzing his way to four Stanley Cups.
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Police Museum & Discovery Centre
Inside the monumental Toronto Police HQ, this nonprofit museum has a small but diverting collection of equipment, uniforms, vehicles and crime-related paraphernalia from 1834 to the present day. Aspiring CSIs can learn how to trace a murderer's DNA from a cigarette butt, while an antique (if a little morbid) billboard clocks traffic deaths in Toronto and A/V exhibits convey the evils of narcotics. Displays attempting to humanize parking inspectors are less effective.
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Cree Cultural Interpretive Centre
Located in Moose Factory, this centre features indoor and outdoor exhibits of artifacts, including bone tools, traditional toys, reusable diapers and dwellings from the precontact era. You’ll learn about pashtamowin, or ‘what goes around, comes around’ – the Cree’s version of karma, if you will. It is best to explore the center with the aid of a guide, as they can relay fascinating details and personal anecdotes about the interesting displays.
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