Canada's Wonderland is an amusement park in Vaughan, Ontario, a municipality within the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). The park features various attractions and rides in several themed areas, as well as a water park named Splash Works. In 2022, it was the most visited seasonal amusement park in North America, with an estimated 3.8 million guests.
Opened in 1981 by the Taft Broadcasting Company and the Great-West Life Assurance Company, Canada's Wonderland was the first major theme park in Canada and remains the country's largest. In 1993, part-owner Paramount Parks acquired full ownership and renamed the park Paramount Canada's Wonderland. Paramount was dropped from the name in 2007, a season after Paramount Parks was acquired by Cedar Fair. Following the 2024 merger of Cedar Fair and Six Flags, Canada's Wonderland is under the ownership of Six Flags.
Canada's Wonderland operates seasonally from spring through Labour Day in the fall, and then on select dates until early January. Special events are held throughout the season, including Halloween Haunt, WinterFest, and various festivals such as Celebration Canada, a month-long Canada Day festival. Among the park's 68 attractions, it features 18 roller coasters, which is tied for second-most among amusement parks worldwide.
History Proposal
When Canada's Wonderland was planned, the Greater Toronto Area lacked a seasonal amusement park that had roller coasters. The city of Toronto had previously hosted three such amusement parks: Sunnyside Amusement Park closed in the 1950s to make room for the Gardiner Expressway. The Scarboro Beach and Hanlan's Point amusement parks both closed in the 1920s.
In 1972, the Taft Broadcasting Company, headed by Kelly Robinson, first proposed building a theme park in the then small village of Maple, part of Vaughan, Ontario, located directly north of Toronto. Several other possible locations in Ontario were considered, including Niagara Falls, Cambridge, and Milton, but Maple was finally selected because of its proximity to the City of Toronto and the 400-series of highways.
Others had seriously considered the Greater Toronto Area as a spot to build a theme park, among them the Conklin family (whose Conklin Shows ran various midways around North America, including Toronto's Canadian National Exhibition midway in Exhibition Place). Walt Disney also considered the idea before choosing Florida for the Walt Disney World Resort, rejecting Toronto mainly because of the city's seasonal climate, which would make the operating season too short to be profitable.
Construction of the park was opposed on multiple fronts. Many cultural institutions in Torontosuch as Ontario Place, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the operators of the Canadian National Exhibitionfelt that the Toronto market was not large enough to support more competition. Other groups that fought the building of Wonderland included a Vaughan residential association called SAVE, which thought the increased traffic would reduce property values. People in the region were concerned that the new park would be similar in aesthetics to a carnival or midway. Some of the concessions the company made included a landscaped berm around the park to reduce noise and modifying the appearance of the large parking lot. In August 1975, a month after the project was announced, the company chartered a flight that took local officials, who paid their own way, and residents on a tour of its Kings Island park at Mason, Ohio, near Cincinnati, to demonstrate the effect such a park had on the surrounding community. Vaughan mayor Garnet Williams was very impressed at Kings Island during the visit, while councillor Jim Cameron was not as convinced after visiting it.
Canada's Wonderland was also responsible for changing the master development plan for the province of Ontario. The provincial government wanted to increase residential and commercial development to the east of Toronto in the Regional Municipality of Durham, which includes Pickering and Oshawa, while keeping the lands to the north of Toronto agricultural, as a Greenbelt. The Wonderland promoters were able to convince the province to amend the planning policy for the region, and the park secured infrastructure improvements, including a highway overpass and sewage systems, that were expanded and built out to the site. This infrastructure paved the way for increased development throughout the region.
Concerns were also raised about the cultural implications of allowing an American theme park to open in Canada. Many felt that it would be a "Trojan Horse" for American culture. To counter the criticism, Taft planned to open Frontier Canada, a part of the park devoted to Canada's history. Early park maps show the area encompassing what is now Splash Works, White Water Canyon, the Action Theatre and the southern part of Kidzville. Taft also proposed including a steam passenger train. While Frontier Canada was not brought up as an idea until 2019 by a different owner, several original themes remain in the area. Unlike its sister parks, Kings Island and Kings Dominion, it was decided early that the centrepiece of the park would not be a replica of Paris's famous Eiffel Tower. Instead, the park's designers chose to build a massive mountain, known as Wonder Mountain, situated at the top of International Street. Wonder Mountain featured a huge waterfall and interior pathways that led visitors to a look-out point. The interior pathways have been closed since and have remained closed. In 2018, the park announced plans to open a Hyatt House and Hyatt Place–branded hotel eventually.
Construction and opening On 13 June 1979, Ontario Premier Bill Davis depressed the plunger on an electronic detonating device at St. Lawrence Hall in downtown Toronto, triggering an explosion on the site. Construction began immediately and continued on to early 1981. Canadian companies were partners on the preliminary design and engineering of the project. Construction of the mountain alone involved a dozen local companies under Cincinnati engineer Curtis D. Summers.
Two years later on 23 May 1981, Davis and Taft Broadcasting President Dudley S. Taft Sr. officially opened Canada's Wonderland to the public. The spectacular opening ceremony included 10,000 helium balloons, 13 parachutists, 350 white doves, and a pipe band. Four children, representing the Arctic, Pacific, Atlantic, and Great Lakes regions of Canada, each poured a vial of water from their home regions into the park's fountain. Hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky also appeared as a special guest, helping to raise the Canadian flag. 12,000 guests were welcomed into the park for the first time. The park cost $120 million ($ million in dollars) to build.
Kings Entertainment and Paramount era During the 1980s, Canada's Wonderland and the Loblaws supermarket chain mounted a cross-marketing campaign. Loblaws issued "Wonder dollars" based on customers' purchases, which were redeemable at Canada's Wonderland at par with the Canadian dollar on weekdays. The obverse of the coin featured Wonder Mountain, while the reverse featured the Loblaws logo.
In 1983, Canada's Wonderland added the Kingswood Music Theatre, a 15,000 seat amphitheatre that has hosted many concerts. After the RBC Amphitheatre (then known as Molson Amphitheatre) opened on the grounds of Ontario Place in 1995, cultural festivals at the theatre became less prominent.
Since the closure of Mighty Flyer in Exhibition Place in Toronto in 1992, Canada's Wonderland is the only location in Ontario with wooden roller coasters in operation."The Flyer's Grounded". Toronto Star. April 25, 1992. p. A1.
Kings Entertainment Company operated the park during the 1980s and early 1990s. The park's former connection to Hanna-Barbera Productions lessened after Paramount Pictures raised its stake from 20 per cent to full ownership of the park in 1993 and renamed it Paramount Canada's Wonderland. After Viacom bought Paramount in 1994, a successful attempt was made to bring families back to the park by attracting children with original Nickelodeon cartoon characters that were familiar to a new generation.
Many changes occurred in the next decade. In 1996, Splash Works expanded, with a new water slide, a wave pool and a new child-friendly water playground (The Black Hole, White Water Bay and The Pump House). In 1998, the park expanded by adding KidZville, which was mainly designed for infants and children. In 1999, Splash Works expanded for the second time, with the addition of raft rides: The Plunge and Super Soaker.
Other changes involved Paramount incorporating references to their film properties into the park. This included the addition of film props around the property, a film-merchandise store, and the renaming of several attractions after Paramount film properties.
In 2001, a new themed area called Zoom Zone was added within the KidZville section. Three new attractions were built in that area: Silver Streak (a family roller coaster), Blast Off (a "frog hopper"), and Jumpin' Jet. In 2002, the park unveiled Action Zone, a new themed area replacing the Exposition of 1890, which at the time contained already existing rides and added the Psyclone ride.
Splash Works also received its third and most current upgrade, with the addition of a child water playground area called Splash Island and the removal of Pipeline.
On 11 May 2003, with the park packed with people for Mother's Day, two guests were involved in a fight at the front gates of the park, which led to a shooting death. It was thought to have followed a prior dispute involving the two over a drug exchange, according to York Regional Police. The park has since added metal detectors at the front gate, with additional security, but not as a direct result of this event.
In 2005, the park introduced Fearfest, a Halloween event featuring various haunted house attractions in different themed areas. Though the section for smaller children was closed off, the park continued running many of the thrill rides during the event, such as the Thunder Run, in which patrons ride a mining type train through a mountain. During the Halloween season, it is re-themed as the "Haunted" Thunder Run, with a darker tunnel and more strobe lights, fog machines, and black-light lit scenes featuring the "skeletons" of miners.
In 2006, the park introduced Spooktacular, a child-oriented Halloween event. The event included children's rides, costume contests and a treasure hunt. Spooktacular was open on weekends during the daytime, while Fearfest remained open at night. Fearfest was renamed Halloween Haunt and Spooktacular was renamed Camp Spooky.
Cedar Fair era On 14 May 2006, Cedar Fair announced it was interested in acquiring the five Paramount theme parks from CBS Corporation (successor of the original Viacom), including Canada's Wonderland. CBS stated that amusement parks did not fit the company's new strategy. The acquisition was completed on 30 June 2006.
After the sale, Cedar Fair began to drop the name "Paramount" from all of the former Paramount properties it acquired, as a result, the park reverted to its original name of Canada's Wonderland in January 2007. The 2007 season was a transition year throughout the park and included renaming the movie-themed rides since Cedar Fair did not hold the rights to Paramount film properties. By the start of the 2008 season, all Paramount logos and similar references had been removed. In August 2007, Cedar Fair announced that Fearfest would become Halloween Haunt to remain consistent with most other Cedar Fair parks, and that Spooktacular would become Camp Spooky. The park extended its regular operating season until the last weekend in October. Halloween Haunt runs in the late evenings on October weekends.