canada's wonderland

Canada's Wonderland is a 330-acre (130 ha) theme park located in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, a suburb directly north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The park is open seasonally from May to October and contains more than 200 attractions (including games) in eight differently themed areas. It opened in 1981 and was Canada's first major theme park and is still today the largest and most popular theme park in Canada.Under the ownership of Paramount Parks from 1994 to 2006, it was known as Paramount Canada's Wonderland. When sold to Cedar Fair in 2007, the park reverted to its original name.
The park has been the most attended seasonal theme park in North America for numerous years in the 2000s. Almost every year in the decade, the park's attendance has reached the three million mark, slightly higher than that of other major destination parks such as Kings Island, Knott's Berry Farm and Cedar Point. It also holds the record for most roller coasters in a park outside of the United States, with 15, and another, Leviathan, currently under construction.
In 1972, the Taft Broadcasting Company, headed by Kelly Robinson, first proposed building a 330-acre (130 ha)theme park in the small village of Maple, part of Vaughan, Ontario. 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). Walt Disney also considered the idea before choosing Florida, rejecting Toronto mainly because the climate was too cold, making the operating season too short to be sustainable.
Construction of the park was opposed on multiple fronts. Many cultural institutions in Toronto such as Ontario Place, the Royal Ontario Museum and the operators of the Canadian National Exhibition felt 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 felt the increased traffic would reduce property values. People in the region were concerned that the new park would be similar in esthetics 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. Taft was concerned about opposition, going as far as to fly a group of opponents and regional councillors out to Cincinnati to show them the positive impact of one of its theme parks on the local community.


Canada's Wonderland was also responsible for changing the master development plan for the province of Ontario. The 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 (see Greenbelt (Golden Horseshoe)). 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. These improvements 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 F/X Theatre and the southern part of Kidzville, as well as proposed attractions, including a steam passenger train. While Frontier Canada was never built, several elemental themes remain in the area. Unlike its sister parks, Kings Island and Kings Dominion, it was decided in the early planning stages 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 which led visitors to a look-out point. Other elements that were never built include a hotel and conference centre (to have been constructed north of the park).