> SESQUI-SATIONAL! CANADA DAY SPIRIT ALL YEAR LONG
As Canada and Ontario both celebrate 150th birthdays, this will be a Canada Day to remember. The entire weekend will be a cavalcade of excitement, and celebrations continue all year.
The city of Toronto is marking the occasion with Canada Days (June 30-July 3), a festival at Nathan Phillips Square with Barenaked Ladies, Buffy Sainte-Marie and others, plus July 1 programming at Mel Lastman Square, Humber Bay Park West and Scarborough Civic Centre. Despite the flooding, Canada Day fireworks will go on at Ashbridge’s Bay as usual at dusk on July 1.
The city’s Canada 150 celebrations continue all year with TO Canada with Love, a series of more than 30 events. Also notable: TIFF’s Canada On Screen, Harbourfront’s Sounds of Home festival, the TSO’s Canada Mosaic concerts and the Ontario Science Centre’s Canada 150: Discovery Way exhibit. The Redpath Waterfront Festival (July 1-3) presents tall ships, live music, a lumberjack show and a 30,000-pound floating rubber duck!
Until July 30, Toronto Reference Library’s new Destination Canada exhibit tells the stories of people arriving and settling in Toronto.
The Market Gallery at St. Lawrence Market traces how Torontonians have embraced the maple leaf symbol from royal visits of the 19th century to modern commercial branding with the exhibit Maple Leaf Forever: Toronto’s Take on a National Symbol (July 22Nov. 25).
Scarborough Museum’s outdoor exhibit Scarborough, Look Again! (Aug. 5-Oct. 31) brings to light the stories of Scarborough residents who have made a mark on history.
Find out more about Canada 150 celebrations, visit toronto.ca/canada150.