Sights in Ontario
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Fort York
Established by the British in 1793 to defend the town of York (as Toronto was then known), Fort York was almost entirely destroyed during the War of 1812 when a small band of Ojibwe warriors and British troops couldn't stop US troops.
Today, a handful of the original log, stone and brick buildings have been restored. In summer, men decked out in 19th-century British military uniforms carry out preposterous marches and drills, firing musket volleys into the sky. Kids feign interest or run around the fort's embankments with wooden rifles. Tours run hourly from May to September, and a fancy new visitor's centre was being planned when we visited. It's, off Fleet St W, east of…
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Chum/Citytv Complex
Inside the historic industrial gothic Wellesley Building (1913), the progressive Citytv network films its foibles and broadcasts outtakes from their infamous Speakers Corner on the John St corner. Here, anyone can step inside the public video booth, drop a loonie ($1) in the slot, wait for the five-second countdown then record themselves saying or doing pretty much anything for two minutes. At the adjacent studios of MuchMusic (www.muchmusic.com), the Canadian version of MTV, pop stars dash inside from their limos as teen fans cheer à la Beatlemania. Above the east parking lot, a CityPulse news truck spins its wheels as it explodes out of the Citytv studio walls.
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Exhibition Place
Every August, historic Exhibition Place is revived for its original purpose, the Canadian National Exhibition. During 'The Ex', millions of visitors flood the midway for carnival rides, lumberjack competitions and more good, honest, homegrown fun than a Sunday-school picnic in June. The beaux arts Victory statue over Princes' Gate has stood proud since 1927, when Canada celebrated its 60th birthday.
Other events held at Exhibition Place throughout the year include the Grand Prix of Toronto in July and a slew of spectator sports and indie design shows. At other times the grounds are often spookily bereft of visitors. Parking costs $12 (after 6pm it will set you back back…
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Terry Fox Lookout & Memorial
This should be your first stop in town – both to visit the valuable information center, and to learn about one of Canada's great heroes. The memorial honors the young Terry Fox, a native of British Columbia, who lost his leg and eventually his life to cancer. Before passing on, he left a powerful legacy by attempting to walk across Canada with an artificial leg to raise money for cancer research. On April 12, 1980, he started his walk in St John's, Newfoundland. On September 1, he arrived in Thunder Bay after traveling 5373km, but was forced to stop as his illness worsened. Today's memorial is erected close to where Terry ended his great 'Marathon of Hope.'
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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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Bon Echo Provincial Park
The region’s crown jewel is the serene Bon Echo Provincial Park, 80km due north of Napanee. One of eastern Ontario’s largest preserves, Bon Echo lures artists and adventurers alike, who come looking for a piece of untainted beauty. The park’s biggest highlight is the 1.5km sheer rock face known as Masinaw Rock. The granite formation sharply juts out of Mazinaw Lake and features the largest visible collection of aboriginal pictographs in all of Canada. The glyphs are best seen from a canoe. For camping reservations and information, contact Ontario Parks (519-826-5290, 888-668-7275; www.ontarioparks.com).
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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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Tommy Thompson Park
A 5km-long artificial peninsula between the Harbourfront and The Beaches, Tommy Thompson Park reaches further into Lake Ontario than the Toronto Islands. This 'accidental wilderness' – constructed from Outer Harbour dredgings and fill from downtown building sites – has become a phenomenal wildlife success. It's one of the world's largest nesting places for ring-billed gulls, and is a haven for terns, black-crowned night heronS, turtles, owls, foxes, even coyotes.
The park is open to the public on weekends and holidays; cars and pets are prohibited. Summer schedules offer interpretive programs and guided walks, usually with an ecological theme. At the end of the park…
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Markham Village
Not to be confused with the town of Markham north of Toronto, this downtown enclave entails a couple of blocks of classy shops, bookstores, eateries and galleries along Markham St. Nearby on the corner of Bloor and Bathurst Sts, Honest Ed ' s is a gaudy discount-shopping emporium owned by theatre impresario Ed Mirvish. You might think you've teleported down to Las Vegas as giant multiglobe signs flash corny messages like 'Don't just stand there, buy something!' and 'Honest Ed's a nut, but look at the cashew save!' Comedy gold…The queues before opening time have to be seen to be believed.
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Fort Erie
East of Port Colborne and south of Niagara Falls is the town of Fort Erie, where the Niagara River leaks out of Lake Erie. Across from Buffalo, New York, it’s connected to the US by the Peace Bridge. The main drawcard here is the historic, star-shaped Fort Erie, a key player in the War of 1812, and ‘Canada’s bloodiest battlefield.’ Also known as the Old Stone Fort, it was first built in 1764. The US seized it in 1814 before retreating. Inside there’s a museum and immaculate, uniformed soldiers performing authentic military drills. Take the worthwhile guided tour (every 30 minutes), included in the admission.
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Royal Botanical Gardens
With 1000-plus hectares of flowers, natural parklands and a wildlife sanctuary, the Royal Botanical Gardens is only one of six world gardens to be designated 'royal.' During spring, the rock garden is a highlight, with 3 hectares of rare trees, waterfalls, ponds and 125,000 flowering bulbs. Think a rose is a rose? Think again, pal. From June to October, thousands of different roses (including antique varieties) bloom in the Centennial rose garden. The arboretum is best in May when the lilacs explode into flower. The sanctuary is home to birds, deer, fox, muskrat and coyote, with trails traversing marshes and wooded ravines.
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Washow James Bay Wilderness Centre
At the time of research, the Moose Cree were constructing the Washow James Bay Wilderness Centre. The goal of the center, 70km east of Moosonee, is to re-create several villages, each at different points in history. One camp has bark-construction dwellings typical of the precontact era, and another will feature contact-era canvas tepees. Guests travel between the main base and the villages by canoe, and activities in the area might include demonstrations of trapping and fishing. Practical details and prices had not been established at the time of research, so check the website for the latest information.
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Distillery District
The slick, 5-hectare Distillery District emerges phoenixlike from the 1832 Gooderham and Worts distillery – once the British Empire's largest distillery. Victorian industrial warehouses have been converted into soaring galleries, artists studios, pricey design shops, coffeehouses, restaurants, the Young Centre for Performing Arts and the Mill Street Brewery. Wedding parties shoot photos against a backdrop of redbrick and cobblestone; clean-cut couples shop for leather lounge suites beneath charmingly decrepit gables and gantries. In summer expect live jazz, exhibitions and food-focused events.
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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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Harbourfront Centre
The 4-hectare Harbourfront Centre puts on a kaleidoscopic variety of performing arts events at the York Quay Centre; many are kid-focused, some are free. Performances sometimes take place on the covered outdoor concert stage by the lake. Also outside are a lakeside ice-skating rink where you can slice up the winter ice, and the ramshackle Artists' Gardens – seasonally rotating raised planter beds constructed by local artists in the spirit of 'guerilla gardening.' Parking costs $12 to $15.
Don't miss the free galleries, including the Photo Passage and the functioning Craft Studio.
Power Plant Gallery is a big-reputation gallery celebrating contemporary Canadian art.
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Royal Canadian Mint
Although Canada's circulation-coin mint is in Winnipeg, the royal mint holds its own by striking special pieces like the Olympic medals for the Vancouver games. In fact, the imposing stone building, which looks a bit like the ominous Tower of London, has been Canada's major gold refiner since 1908. Excellent tours (reservations recommended) of the coin-making process are offered regularly (as often as every 15 minutes in the height of summer) – during the workweek, visitors can glimpse the transformation as sheets of metal are spun into loads of coins. Sorry, no free samples.
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Diefenbunker
During the Cold War, paranoid government officials commissioned the Diefenbunker, a secret underground military/government refuge. The gargantuan four-floored shelter was designed to house over 300 ‘important persons’ for 30 days during a nuclear attack. Admission includes an optional one-hour tour, whose highlights include the prime minister’s suite, the CBC radio studio and the Bank of Canada vault. It’s about 40km west of town, in the village of Carp. Reservations are essential. Plans are under way to open the entire 100,000 sq meter space to the public.
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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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RC Harris Filtration Plant
Commanding heavenly views of the lakefront on a priceless slab of real estate, the elegantly proportioned RC Harris Filtration Plant is a modern art-deco masterpiece that has appeared in countless movies and TV shows, as well as in Michael Ondaatje's In the Skin of a Lion. Originally residents disparagingly dubbed it the 'Palace of Purification,' due to hefty construction costs during the Great Depression. The operational filtration plant is currently closed to the public, but hard-core Ondaatje fans should call to see if tours are back on the agenda.
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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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Spadina Quay Wetlands
A former lakeside parking lot has been transformed into the 2800-sq-meter Spadina Quay Wetlands, a thriving, sustainable ecosystem full of frogs, birds and fish. When lakeside fishers noticed that northern pike were spawning here each spring, the city took it upon itself to create this new habitat. Complete with flowering heath plants, poplar trees and a birdhouse, it's a little gem leading the way in Harbourfront redevelopment. Aside from the pike, look for monarch butterflies, mallard ducks, goldfinches, dragonflies and red-winged blackbirds.
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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. Next door the Graham Spry Theatre screens ever-changing CBC programming.
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Provincial Legislature
The seat of Ontario's Provincial Legislature resides in a fabulously ornate 1893 sandstone building, north of College St in Queen's Park. For some homegrown entertainment, head for the visitors' gallery when the adversarial legislative assembly is in session (Monday to Thursday March to June and September to December). Viewing is free, but security regulations are in full force. You can't write, read or applaud as the honorable members heatedly debate such pressing issues as skidoo safety. Free 30-minute tours depart from the information desk.
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