Museum sights in Canada
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Daredevil Gallery
The most engaging thing around here is the Daredevil Gallery attached to IMAX Niagara. Scratch your head in amazement at the battered collection of barrels and padded bubbles in which people have ridden over the falls (not all of them successfully). There's also a history of falls 'funambulism' (tightrope walking) here.
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Aboriginal Village
This intriguing replica of an Aboriginal village offers glimpses of the original inhabitants of Ottawa and the region. Spend an afternoon in the native encampment watching vibrant dance performances, sampling authentic cuisine and learning about traditional craftworks. Turtle Island is within walking distance of downtown.
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Textile Museum of Canada
Obscurely located at the bottom of a condo tower in a cultureless corner of town, this museum has exhibits drawing on a permanent collection of 10,000 items from Latin America, Africa, Europe, Southeast Asia and India, as well as contemporary Canada. Workshops teach batik making, weaving, knitting and all manner of needle-stuff.
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Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic
The knowledgeable staff at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic includes a number of retired fisherfolk who can give firsthand explanations of the fishing industry. A cute aquarium on the 1st floor lets you get eye-to-eye with halibut, a 6kg lobster and other sea creatures. Film screenings and talks are scheduled throughout the day.
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Manitoba Museum
Nature trips through the sub-Arctic, history trips into 1920s Winnipeg, cultural journeys covering the past 12,000 years – if it happened in Manitoba, it's here. Amidst the superb displays are a planetarium and an engaging science gallery. A new exhibit shows what Churchill was like as a tropical jungle, a mere 450 million years ago.
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Royal Military College Museum
This museum, on the grounds of the military college off Hwy 2 E, is inside the Fort Frederick Martello Tower, the largest of the city's historic towers. The exhibits detail the history of the century-old military school and there's a donated collection of small arms from General Porfirio Diaz, president of Mexico from 1876 to 1911.
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Canada Place
You'll want to wave a maple leaf - or rent the South Park movie with the 'Blame Canada' song - after you visit this unusual, almost jingoistic location. Various exhibits and interactive displays celebrate all things Canuck. You can sit in a birch-bark canoe but try as we might, we couldn't find a Tim Hortons doughnut anywhere.
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Walls Underground Railroad Museum
One of the best Underground Railroad historical displays is at the Walls Underground Railroad Museum, 20km east of Windsor. The original 1846 log cabin built by John Freeman Walls, a fugitive slave from North Carolina, is still here; it functioned as a safe terminal for others searching for freedom. Walls' descendants still run the museum.
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Craigdarroch Castle
If you're in this part of town checking out the gallery, don't miss this elegant turreted mansion a few minutes' walk away. A handsome, 39-room landmark built by a 19th-century coal baron with money to burn, it's dripping with period architecture and antique-packed rooms. Climb the tower's 87 steps (check out the stained-glass windows en route) for views of the snowcapped Olympic Mountains.
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Ursuline Museum
Rue des Ursulines is worth exploring, with its picturesque homes (some of which are now B&Bs) and its unseen history, which you can learn about in the Ursuline Museum. Founded by Ursuline nuns in 1639, the museum has a fine collection of textiles, ceramics, books and prints related to Catholicism. Frescoes adorn the chapel.
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Kingston Archaeological Centre
If you've been traveling along the boring stretch of Hwy 401, you probably spotted the sedimentary rock outcrops – the only interesting thing on the road. Swing by the archaeological center to learn more about the craggy formations, and while you're there check out the archaeological record detailing the 8000-year-old human history of the area.
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Currency Museum
Make sense of cents at this small museum tucked within the greenhouse lobby of the Bank of Canada building. Various displays detail the global history of money, from seashells and whales' teeth to banknotes and credit cards. Don't miss the giant Yap stone – used to display a family's wealth – sitting amid exotic foliage near the museum's entrance.
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Canadian Football Hall of Fame & Museum
Despite universal mockery of 'Canadian football,' nothing stops Canadian sports fans from welling with enthusiasm for their fast-paced brand of gridiron. The Canadian Football Hall of Fame & Museum puts more than 100 years of Canadian Football League (CFL) history on display through equipment, photos and the actual Grey Cup – the CFL's holy grail.
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Guelph Civic Museum
In a handsome 1847 stone house, this museum offers exhibitions, programs and events digging up the history of the city (which, incidentally, is named after the British Royal Family's ancestors the Guelphs). The 'Growing Up in Guelph' kids' exhibition makes a happy distraction. An extensive remodel will double the museum's size as well as give it LEED certification.
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Grey Roots
Grey Roots, near Inglis Falls, highlights the rich pioneer history of the region through displays about early settlers and local heroes, and interactive presentations about the region's natural resources, climate and topography. Colorful rotating attractions truly embrace the non sequitur: past exhibits have explored Albertan dinosaurs and the history of the toilet.
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Ursuline Museum
In Trois-Rivières, Rue des Ursulines is worth exploring, with its picturesque homes (some of which are now B&Bs) and its unseen history, which you can learn about in the Ursuline Museum. Founded by Ursuline nuns in 1639, the museum has a fine collection of textiles, ceramics, books and prints related to Catholicism. Frescoes adorn the chapel.
reviewed
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Musée Stewart
Inside a former British garrison (where troops were stationed in the 19th century), this museum displays relics from Canada’s past as well as a multimedia model of Old Montréal. Demonstrations are given outside by actors in period costume, and there’s a military parade every day in summer. It’s a 15-minute walk from metro Jean-Drapeau station.
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Leacock Museum
Orillia was the home of humorist Stephen Leacock, whose sequence of stories entitled Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town was a spoof about country life. In 1928 he built a lavish waterfront house that has since become the Leacock Museum. In July the museum hosts the Leacock Summer Festival, a well-regarded literary festival; tickets to readings cost $8 to $13.
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Bata Shoe Museum
It's important in life to be well shod, a stance the Bata Shoe Museum takes seriously. Designed by architect Raymond Moriyama to resemble a stylized shoebox, the museum displays 10,000 'pedi-artifacts' from around the globe. Peruse 19th-century French chestnut-crushing clogs, Canadian Aboriginal polar boots or famous modern pairs worn by Elton John, Indira Gandhi and Pablo Picasso.
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Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art
The MOCCA is the city's only museum mandated to collect works by living Canadian and international visual artists. West Queen West has consolidated as an arts and design precinct – the perfect location for this facility. Permanent holdings only number about 400 works, curated since 1985, but award-winning temporary exhibitions promote emerging artists from Nova Scotia to British Columbia.
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Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art
Opposite the Royal Ontario Museum, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art was founded by philanthropists. Spread over three floors, collections cover several millennia; various rooms focus on 17th- and 18th-century English tavern ware, Italian Renaissance majolica, ancient American earthenware and blue-and-white Chinese porcelain. There are free guided tours on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 2pm.
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Penticton Museum
Inside the library, the Penticton Museum has delightfully eclectic displays, including the de rigueur natural-history exhibit with stuffed animals and birds plus everything you'd want to know about the Peach Festival.
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Charles W Stockey Centre
The Charles W Stockey Centre incorporates the Bobby Orr Hall of Fame. For the uninitiated, local legend Bobby Orr is one of hockey's greatest heroes as he forever changed the role of defensemen with his awesome offensive prowess. At his huge modern shrine, fans can play air hockey, pretend to be a sports announcer or strap on goalie gear and confront an automated puck-firing machine.
A beautiful theater has live performances, including free summer concerts every Tuesday evening.
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Centre des Sciences de Montréal
This sleek, glass-covered science center houses virtual and interactive games, technology exhibits and an ‘immersion theater’ that puts a video game on giant screens. There’s a huge range of different admission prices depending on which combinations of films and/or exhibits you want to take in. The center includes an IMAX cinema showing vivid nature and science films.
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Centre d'Histoire de Montréal
Housed in a handsome old fire hall on Pl d’Youville, the Montréal History Center has 300-plus artifacts that illustrate the city’s eventful past with the aid of models and videos. You can listen to the tales of real people while sitting in a period kitchen, or travel back in time while watching archival footage from the ‘40s and ‘60s. For sweeping views, head to the rooftop.
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