How Canada’s Wonderland got built despite heated debates

There was much opposition to Canada’s Wonderland’s creation, but after 35 years it is one of North America’s top amusement parks.

Thestar.com
June 23, 2016
By Janice Bradbeer

It was a heart-pumping, stomach-churning roller coaster ride for opponents of Canada’s Wonderland in the village of Maple in Vaughan. Debates heated up faster than a strawberry- and vanilla-ice-cream-topped funnel cake left out in the August sun.

Canada’s Wonderland opened on May 23, 1981, following years of controversy and acrimony. Its creation 35 years ago also resulted in infrastructure improvements, kick-starting more regional development.

“You could say Yogi Bear won and Maple lost,” Vaughan councillor James Cameron told the Toronto Star in March 1978.

On one side were homeowners in Maple and residential organizations, such as SAVE (Sensible Approach to Vaughan’s Environment), who opposed the theme park off Highway 400, as well as other suburban encroachments. The CNE, Ontario Place and Royal Ontario Museum were fearful of the competition it would create.

Then there were the developers: Family Leisure Centres, a division of U.S.-based Taft Broadcasting Company and Canada’s Great-West Life Assurance Company, who thought their plans were smarter than the average bear. The developers purchased 330 acres (130 hectares) of land in 1975 at the intersection of Highway 400 and Major Mackenzie Dr.

In March 1978, Canada’s Wonderland was approved by the Ontario Municipal Board. The report recommended the province’s ministry of culture and education force the park to maintain a high level of Canadian content.

“Toronto is the last good theme park area left in North America,” William Bieberbach, Yogi Bear’s ambassador and director of marketing for Taft, told the Star following the deal’s approval. His company operated similar parks in Cincinnati and Richmond, Va.

“You’ve got the population, the money and the highway access. There are 22 of these parks in North America - Disneyland starting it all in the ’50s - so the market is covered, if not saturated. The Maple site is ideal.”

Well, tell that to the residents of York Region.

“For God’s sake, Disneyland isn’t the real world. We don’t need a place like this. We have everything we need in Metro Toronto ... It’s an abomination and I don’t want my children exposed to more of this kind of hucksterism,” said an enraged Margaret Britnell, Mayor of King Township and mother of three children.

Cameron couldn’t understand why the developers “think they’re doing us a favour by building a plastic replica of the Canadian frontier when we have Black Creek Pioneer Village two miles down the road.”

He also expressed serious concerns about the effect of increased traffic and the tourist dollars the American theme park would steal from more established entertainment centres, such as the CNE, Ontario Place and the Metro Zoo.

But then Vaughan Mayor Garnet Williams thought it was a great idea. “All this anti-American feeling is baloney. Building this park is no different than watching American television,” he said.

With approvals in place, preparations began for the megaproject, which would feature several rides and five themed areas: Frontier Canada, Hanna-Barbera Land, International Street, Medieval Faire and World Expo 1890. Wonder Mountain, with its Victoria Falls, would be the centrepiece.

The cost for the project came to $120 million ($307 million in today’s dollars), tipping the decision to delay Frontier Canada’s construction for a year. The park would run daily from May through Labour Day and on weekends through September. The ticket package was set at $11.95 per adult, with access to 18 attractions.

“Resignation has been the real response of the people,” a representative from the residential group SAVE told the Star in 1980. “It means we’ll be living between two dumps,” referring to Canada’s Wonderland and the Keele Valley Landfill.

On May 23, 1981, Ontario Premier Bill Davis and Taft Broadcasting President Dudley Taft officially opened Canada’s Wonderland. The ceremony included 10,000 helium balloons, 13 parachutists, a pipe band and 350 white doves. Four children each poured a vial of water from their home regions into the park’s fountain. Hockey great Wayne Gretzky helped raise the Canadian flag over the park, which received 12,000 guests that summerlike Saturday, out of an estimated 40,000.

The Star sent reporter Kevin Scanlon to test three nausea inducers during media previews. “The Dragon Fyre gave me a sensation I hadn’t felt since rolling a speeding Volkswagen Beetle four times in a Perth County ditch nine years ago,” Scanlon said of the ride, which he described as “1,800 feet of tubular steel that is twisted pretzel like into two 50-foot loops and a double barrel-roll.”

The reporter gave it an eight out of 10, docking points for its short duration. The Wilde Beast earned a nine (it bruised his elbows) and the Mighty Canadian Mine Buster scored a perfect 10 for its high drop and speed up to 52 mph (84 km/h).

The first year Canada’s Wonderland grossed more than $45 million, with an attendance of nearly 2.2 million. It did more than Taft’s most successful park in its first season, according to William Baumann, Taft’s director of investor relations.

Paramount Parks acquired ownership from 1993 to 2006, renaming it Paramount Canada’s Wonderland. Cedar Fair Entertainment Company purchased the park in 2006 and dropped Paramount from the title.

In 1983, Canada’s Wonderland added the Kingswood Music Theatre, a 15,000-seat amphitheatre that has hosted popular concerts.

Park hours were extended into October when Fearfest (later known as Halloween Haunt) was introduced in October 2005.

New rides joined the lineup, including the roller coaster Leviathon, billed as “the tallest and fastest in Canada” when it rolled out in 2012. “Leviathon’s 1,672 metres of blue painted steel, like ribbons in the sky, either entrance or horrify at first sight. There’s nothing subtle about it,” said the Star.

Leviathon offered an initial drop of 93.3 metres, reaching speeds of 148 km/h and knocking the park’s Behemoth - no baby at 70 metres with speeds climaxing at 124 km/h - out of first place.

Canada’s Wonderland has remained the most visited seasonal amusement park in North America for several years. It offers more than 200 attractions, with a total of 69 rides, with 16 roller coasters and eight themed areas. Its eight-hectare water park Splash Works includes water slides and Canada’s largest wave pool, White Water Bay.

Two new rides were opened for the 2016 season: Flying Eagles for the kids and the Skyhawk, which takes riders 41 metres off the ground, where they perform like pilots, spinning their seats 360 degrees around.

Unfortunately, the U.S.-owned amusement park kept a big chunk of the Maple Leaf Forever out of Maple: the Canadian-themed Frontier Village remained unsettled.