I was fortunate to be able to get a “little” tour at Toronto’s newest attraction, Little Canada.
Little Canada is exactly what it sounds like– our beautiful country represented in miniature size. It is a unique journey of discovery that not only serves as an educational tool for children, but adults too!
The moment you head down the escalator, you see a traditional land acknowledgement from Philip Cote, MFA Young Spiritual Elder. Philip has won numerous TABIA awards for his public Street Art Murals Across the City of Toronto, and collaborated with Little Canada for this special project, “he helped us develop this beautiful land acknowledgment using these amazing illustrations that have been created to honour and represent what land we are traditionally sitting on, where Little Canada has chosen to make its home,” said Camille Wodka, Marketing Manager at Little Canada.
Guests begin their journey at the customs station– the nicest of its kind, and then walk right into Little Niagara. All of the quintessential tourist attractions and landmarks are “littleized” including the cascading falls, Rainbow Bridge, even activities like zip lining, and the Niagara Skywheel.
To put size in perspective the scale is 1-87 a.k.a 1 person in this exhibit is 3/4″ tall.
Throughout the tour, Wodka explained that there was a creative passionate team of Miniature Makers behind creating this masterpiece. About 30 makers (artists, engineers, design specialists, architects and more) have worked close to 200,000 hours to bring local landmarks and stories to life.
It all started with an idea that Jean-Louis Brenninkmeijer, an immigrant to Canada, who began learning all of the wonderful things about Canada when he would help his children with their school projects. He was inspired by a visit to Miniatur Wunderland in Hamburg, Germany, and decided Canada needed a wonderland of its own. Not only is Little Canada a dream in the making since 2011, but it is a dream come true for him and the entire team where now thousands and maybe millions of people can learn wonderful things about Canada.
Some of my favourite local Toronto attractions were of course seeing the EdgeWalk on the CN Tower, a packed house at the Rogers Centre, the Raptors playing at the Scotiabank Arena, and local vendors around the St. Lawrence market.
Little Canada features Little Niagara, Little Toronto, Little Golden Horseshoe, Little Ottawa, and Petit Quebec. They have hopes of expanding and are in the midst of creating Northern Canada, East Coast and West Coast Canada!
At the end of my walk-through I got “Littlized!” Yes, that’s a thing. YOU, yourself can be littlized to be in Little Canada! All you do is step into a booth and strike a pose. There, 128 cameras will flash and capture your 3D image. Your Little Me can be printed in a variety of different sizes. You can choose from either a 3/4″ Little Me, 5″ Little Me, 7″ Little Me and/or 9″ Little Me.
Overall, the experience is something I think everyone can enjoy. Little Canada is slated to open at the end of July with tickets expected to go on sale soon!
