What I Did on my Summer Vacation – In 1967
Do you recall what you did on your summer vacation fifty-five years ago? Maybe not, until I mention that 1967 was the summer of Canada’s Centennial – and of Expo ’67 in Montreal. 
Like millions of other Canadians, my family made the trip to “see the world” that had come to help celebrate Canada’s first hundred years. In July, the Willcock family took our truck-camper and stayed in the Expo Campground for a week; every day we rode the futuristic passenger monorail to and from the exhibition grounds – a cool experience for a country boy! We visited many of the 60 pavilions showcasing the 120 participating nations, saw Canadian and international performers, and met some very nice people from other provinces and countries. We each had an Expo “passport” that allowed us entry to pavilions, events, and activities – our Mom looked after my brother’s and mine, but we presented them for stamping.
The 1967 World Exposition originally was to be in Moscow, but the Soviets withdrew and Montreal got it. The site was Île Sainte-Hélène, an island in the St Lawrence River connected to the mainland by the Jacques Cartier Bridge. Île Sainte-Hélène was expanded and a second island, Île Notre-Dame, was created using soil dredged from the river and also trucked in – much from Montreal’s newly-built subway. Site construction cost $40 million, with the same again for buildings. Participating nations paid for their pavilions, with several designed by world-renowned architects. The grounds were intended for 26 million visitors during the Fair’s run – 28 April to 27 October – excluding employees, performers, etc.; actual paid attendance was over 50 million. The total cost for building and operating Expo was $283 million, but the return was $480 million!
There are a few remaining structures from Expo – notably the geodesic dome that housed the United States’ pavilion, today the Biosphere. Île Notre-Dame now is the location of Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, site of the annual Canadian F1 Grand Prix.
Expo ’67 was an exciting, perhaps overwhelming, experience for a child but as an adult I know it was an historic event – one that I have no need to read about because I have memories!
By: Don Willcock,
The Peterborough Museum & Archives,
300 Hunter St E, Peterborough, 705-743-5180
