Exhibition Grounds (The CNE)

Welcome to Walking in Place. I'm your host, Ashley McDonough. If you're new here, I'm going to take the next minute or so to introduce myself and the podcast. If you're not, welcome back, feel free to skip ahead.

So about me, I go by she/her pronouns and I'm from a mostly Irish and French settler background. I've lived in Toronto for about eight years. And before that, I lived in Montreal and Ottawa. I am not a historian or journalist or a scholar, just someone who enjoys spending a lot of my free time learning about the city.

About the podcast. Each episode is designed to be a walking tour that you can enjoy from home or out in person. There are 30 seconds of ambiance between each stop. These are recordings from when I did the walk myself. If that's not your thing, you can always press the Skip 30 seconds button to get to the next step.

This podcast is created on and tells the stories of things that happened on the traditional land of the Huron Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinabe and the Mississaugas of the Credit. Today, Toronto is home to many Indigenous peoples from across Turtle Island, and is within the territory of the Dish With One Spoon Treaty, which means that it is our shared responsibility to take care of it an important thing to think about on these walks. Now let's get to today's episode.

I'll be honest, I didn't grew up in Toronto, but I have been to fares similar to The Ex. I first moved here in the summer a few years ago... more than a few years ago, I guess. And I was surprised that the whole city seemed to be buzzing at the incoming arrival of The Ex. No place I've ever lived has been this excited for a fair, especially a city of this size. I don't know, I just found it very surprising. This year, the energy is definitely up. The Ex is back for the first time since 2019, which was its 140 year anniversary by the way. Before COVID, it had only ever been canceled for World Wars one and two, I guess that means it still operated during the Spanish flu, smallpox, H1N1 but I guess that's beside the point.

It felt like an appropriate time to talk about it this year. So let's get into it. Obviously we're here to talk about the 140 plus year history of The Ex. It definitely helped me understand what all the fuss is about. We're going to start our walk at the Dufferin gate which is at the foot of Dufferin around where the Gardiner Expressway is and then end at the iconic Princes' Gate.

140 years is a long time. As you can imagine, The Ex- or the CNE, the Canadian National Exhibition- has seen many developments over the years. The first iteration was the Toronto Industrial Fair founded in 1879. Before that, there was a traveling provincial agricultural fair, which Toronto hosted in 1878. Ottawa was chosen to host it the following year, and allegedly (alleged by me), Toronto had FOMO and so the Toronto Industrial Fair was founded. Have I mentioned yet that fairs were a *thing* in the 1800s. It's a custom that came with British settlers and popped up all over North America as early as 1807. The competitive nature of Toronto's Industrial Fair business is honestly part of the fabric of agricultural fairs in general. In North America, it started as a sheep shearing demonstration and then grew to have farmers coming in with all of their offerings, which then grew to competitions. And of course, commerce. Fairs were big money and when specific fairs became notable by name people would travel to attend or exhibit at the fair for the chance to spend and make money as well as have some good old wholesome fun. In 1852, a grand fair was held in London, England called the Great Exhibition, which got all of the loyalists in North America in a tizzy vying for the status that came along with being the fair to go to. The Toronto Industrial Fair carried over that agricultural component, but also introduced opportunities for new innovations and technologies to be showcased. It was 1879 and remember, industrialization was in full swing, and Toronto was a major city. They wanted to win the hearts of every fair goer in the land. The fair was a hit, it became an annual thing and in 1904, it rebranded itself as the Canadian National Exhibition, or for short, The Ex. So you could say they won the race. But it's not enough to earn that position, you have to put in the work to stay at the top, and you have to look the part.

We're standing at the site of one of the earliest investments into the Exhibition Grounds. In 1895, the official gate to the grounds was erected here and in 1910, it was replaced with a fancy Beaux-Arts archway that was named after Lord Dufferin. He opeed the gate himself when it was finished in 1914. When I mean open, I mean, like, you know, symbolically or ceremoniously. I don't think any manual effort was involved. That gate is not the gate we see here today. Today, it's a huge white parabolic arch at the foot of Dufferin Street. At night it gets all lit up. Technically, it stands about 50 feet south of where the original gates stood. This is because in 1956, Toronto built the Gardiner Expressway through here and had to demolish the old gate, they built this one in its place. The look and feel of the exhibition grounds is a central part of its evolution over the years. And at our next couple stops, we will visit the sights of some of the earliest buildings and status symbols built on the exhibition grounds. Walk south on Dufferin just a bit until you're standing in front of the large old building at 10 different street see you there in 30 seconds.

This building is still a popular landmark and one of the main buildings that sees action outside of the three ish weeks of The Ex comes around each year. That's because this building, originally called the Government Building, now houses Medieval Times, an experience enjoyed by most Torontonians who have had family come visit. And I know a ton of Torontonians who just like to go for a good time. The Government Building was one of 15 buildings commissioned by the city in 1905 to make sure the grounds were fit for a National Fair, only five of them are still here today we'll visit them the government building was finished in 1912. It was intended for exhibits put on by the Canadian government. Eventually, I guess people lost interest in those exhibits and the building was instead used as the arts, crafts and hobbies exhibition building for a while. By the 1990s the building wasn't really being put to use anymore, which is when Medieval Times won the contract to take over. At the top of the episode I mentioned that the world wars were the only times before COVID the CNE didn't operate. Instead the grounds and buildings were used for the war effort. In the First World War the Government Building was used as barracks for soldiers, I'll be peppering in a lot of facts about what buildings were used for what during the world wars throughout this episod.  Honourable mention to a building we won't be seeing today, the Ontario Government Building which is just southeast of here. It was built for, you might have guessed, exhibits by the Ontario government. The other government building was for the Canadian government. In the 70s, Ontario Place was built just south of here as a replacement to the Ontario government building. As you probably know, it was built on artificial islands created on the lake. They kept the original Ontario government building here and used it for just general exhibits at the CNE because Ontario government exhibits moved over to Ontario Place. But like the government building, it wasn't really being put to great use over time. So in the year 2000, they put out a request for proposals and Liberty Entertainment Group took over. It's used now for fancy events. It has banquet halls and ballrooms, so I'm guessing a lot of weddings happen there. If you haven't already guessed there are going to be a lot of buildings on this tour. Let's head to the next one. Walk east on Saskatchewan road until you get to 15 Saskatchewan road see you there in 30 seconds.

This is a long building with a cupola. You know, like a domed roof right in the middle. It was another one of those 15 buildings commissioned in 1905 and it's called the Horticultural Building. The Horticultural Building was built to showcas-  drumroll please - horticulture. It was completed in 1907. During World War Two the building was used by the quartermaster, the person responsible for assigned quarters, or, you know, living spaces to the troops. He also used it to store the tools and stuff he would need to maintain the quarters. So he was kind of like the building manager or like the super. Today the building is used as an events venue and for a time in the 2000s it was the Muzik nightclub on Saturday nights. A less cheerful fact: in 1949, a passenger ship called the SS Nuronic caught on fire in the Toronto Harbour. Over 100 people died and they needed somewhere to put the bodies... so the horticultural building became a temporary morgue. It's apparently haunted, as you might expect. Speaking of fire, the Horticultural Building wasn't the first CNE building at this site. From 1878 until 1906, the Crystal Palace stood here. It was erected to make the ground seem more grand for the Provincial Agricultural Fair, I'm speculating here, but I'm guessing they wanted the fair people to tell them they were the prettiest fairgrounds in the land and deserve to host it a second year in a row. We know that didn't happen, but the building continued to be the crown jewel of the place until it burned down in 1906. It was used to show off wedding cakes, pianos, firearms, fishing supplies, all sorts of random stuff, but it was pretty and it was made of lots of glass and metal inspired by the Crystal Palace that was built in London by Queen Victoria's husband Albert and his buddy Henry Cole. Their intention with the building was to show off arts and innovations from all nations, but somehow ended up being mostly British arts and innovations. Toronto actually had a crystal palace before this one, it was at King in Sudbury, but they dismantled it and use parts of it to build the Crystal Palace that was here. If you're visiting during CNE times, my suggestion is to go back just a bit west on Saskatchewan until you can get on a path and walk south into the park area behind the building. Stop when you see the CNE bandshell. It looks like a stage inside of a big white shell. If you are doing this tour during the CNE that path will be blocked. So as an alternate route, keep walking east past the Horticultural Building and take the path going south that starts across from the Administration Building just to the west of the fountain make your way over to the bandshell we'll be continuing on the right the west side of the bandshell So aim for that side of the park eventually.

The CNE bandshell was built in 1936. It's an art deco style structure inspired by the Hollywood Bowl. It's hosted a lot of big acts over the years including Louis Armstrong, The Guess Who and Joni Mitchell. When I visited this year, it was hosting David Wilcox. In 2003, it was the site of the Guinness World Record for the largest Hokey Pokey song and dance routine, hosted by none other than Elmo. Yeah, THE Elmo. The grassy area around it is called Bandshell Park, but it housed the transportation building until it burned down in the 60s. You should see a path just next to the bandshell heading west. Take it until it ends and you will find yourself in front of a log cabin. This is Scadding Cabin, the oldest building still standing in Toronto. It was originally owned by Henry Scadding, an early Toronto settler who was friends with John Graves Simcoe. Scadding on a huge lot of land just east of the Don River. This cabin was originally built in 1794. In 1818, he sold it to a man named William Smith who went on to donate it to a local historical society, which is hilarious to me because it's not like the area had been settled for all that long at that point and there was already a historical society. But regardless, they took care of the cabin up until 1879, when the city decided to move it over here to be part of the CNE grounds since it was somewhat of a tourist attraction. They disassembled the logs in order to bring it here where they rebuilt it.

In the 1890s the CNE displayed the first Toronto taxi car right here in front of Scadding Cabin. This is significant because that taxi belonged to Thornton Blackburn, a Black man who escaped from the States in 1833. He went on to start the very first taxi company in the city, a four person horse drawn carriage that he painted red and yellow, which are now the colours used by the TTC. While his innovation and his business were a success and obviously showcased here at the CNE even in the 1800s, he still faced discrimination throughout his life here in the city. I go into more detail on his and his wife's story in the Creepy Cabbagetown episode, but I'll also include some further reading in the show notes.

Turn back towards the lake and you should see a little path leading to a monument with cannon statues around it- if they're still there. When I visited during the CNE they were not there. I don't know if that happened before the CNE or if they just didn't trust the public with cannon statues for some reason. It's like this big pointy monument right next to the Scadding Cabin. This is the Fort Rouille monument. The earliest settlement of these grounds was actually Fort Rouille in 1750. It was a trading post for the French and First Nations and it was built to entice the First Nations to choose trade with the French instead of the English. As we all know, in the early 1700s, North America was the location of the famous pissing contest between the French and the British, and eventually the newly formed Americans. One of the biggest tug and pulls of the time was who got the most First Nations peoples on their side. In 1759, though the French tore the fort down in order to prevent it from being invaded by English troops. This was five years before the seven year war started when the fight between the French and English became a legit war. So I guess they were just being proactive. There is a cement outline of the fort walls on the exhibition grounds. Today if you're curious about how the fort was laid out, just look at the ground.

Walk east on the main path, south of the monument. This is called the promenade. It's a mile long and it was laid down in 1959. The same initiative brought benches to the area and gardens, which you can see. There are over 3000 rose bushes planted here, so it's called the Rose Garden. There used to be a lily pond too, but the mosquitoes were enjoying it a little bit too much. So they drained it. There's a couple of fountains here but the one I would like to talk about is the biggest one. It has a statue in the middle of it. That monument was donated to Canada by the Shriners and it's called the Shriners' Peace Memorial. The Shriners are also known as the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. The monument is meant to symbolize peace and friendship between Canada and the US. It depicts an angel with wings standing on a globe that supported by two sphinxes. She has a huge olive branch crown slash halo above her head. I tried to do some digging to understand why the Shriners chose to present this to us in honour of peace and friendship between Canada and the US, I didn't find a lot of information. So if anyone has any insight on that I would really love to know because it does seem a little bit random to me.

There's a path behind the fountain going back north. If you're doing this walk during the CNE it's the same path that you took to get down here. Take it until you see another fountain on the right- resist going to that fountain though just for now.

Before we head to the fountain, look to your left, there's a little path. Or you can even just walk back into the Bandshell Park. But look north and soon you'll see a tower between the trees. During the CNE it's where the bar is in the Bandshell Park. It's a rectangular tower built with an open green metal grid showing tiers of different sized bells when you look up close. There's also a clock on top. This isn't just a random tower with bells. It's actually a musical instrument, or it was. It's called a carillon. It's one of 11 in the country, but it's one of the two that don't work anymore. It's 85 feet high and contains 50 bills ranging from 8 to 60 inches in height and 30 to 4800 pounds (!) in weight. A trained person who can operate a carillon is called a carilloneur. Such a fancy title. That person would manually operate it, or they might automate it or use computerized tapes. Halfway up the tower there is a compartment displaying figures from the classic, universally known Christian Andersen fairy tale: "The Young Swineherd".

Alright, let's go to that fountain. It's kind of in what feels like a town square of sorts. If you're standing with your back to the Bandshell Park, it's got the Queen Elizabeth theatre right behind the fountain. On the right of the fountain is the Better Living Center. And on the left of the fountain is the Administration Building. So what's the name of this fountain? It's the Princess Margaret fountain and it was built in 1958 in honor of Princess Margaret, the famous party girl Queen Elizabeth Little sister. She was here at its opening in 1958. She even pressed the button that got the fountain operating. The Royals, by the way, have been to the CNE a number of times. A lot of stuff in the CNE is in honour of them. We'll talk a bit more about that later, but they come up quite a bit.

At the north part of this intersection is the Administration Building, another one of the 15 buildings commissioned in 1905. That was built that year. This building looks to me like something out of Disney World. It's a very grand looking symmetrical building with two stories. It's got multiple windows on its face, the entryway has a pillar on each side. And on each side of the building, the roof points up into a triangle. And in the middle, there's this big decorative molding. It's like a half circle with the clock in the middle of it. And these fancy green and gold designs around it right below that clock. It says "ADMINISTRATION" in big block letters. It's where the CNE organizers worked and where they now work again. I know that was kind of a weird sentence, but yes, there was a time when it wasn't used by the administration. From 1957 until recently, it was actually called the Press Building and instead of "Administration" at the top, it said "Press". In 1957 it was renamed the press building and it was used as the home base for media coming to report on the fair because there were so many people- and I'm not being sarcastic- there were SO many people coming to report on the fair that they needed somewhere for them to set up shop. They even equipped the building with extra phones and press wires to accommodate all of the rabid press coming to document the fair.

Like I mentioned before, the large building east of the fountain is the Queen Elizabeth theatre building. The main entrance is on Princes' Boulevard. We're not going to go that way, but you'll see the other side of it soon. This theater was built in 1957. And it was around this time that a lot of modern style buildings were built in the area to just refresh the aesthetic. It was also a replacement of sorts for the women's building. They first operated out of the Crystal Palace then grew to need their own space. They got a building to themselves just northeast of here, but they outgrew that too. They got that building in 1908. Across the street from the Queen Elizabeth Theater, which is where the Better Living Center is now, it was attached to the Manufacturers Building which was also in that location where the Better Living Center is. It showcased household appliances and fixtures. If you're wondering what the women's building really was, it was where men dropped off their women as they headed into the fair. Just joking. It was built as a space for a committee of women that formed at the CNE in the late 1800s to showcase the women's exhibits, as stereotypical as it sounds on making things like cooking, cleaning, sewing. It was really popular, all the women would flock there and it grew to the point of needing an auditorium for lectures and demonstrations. Eventually that evolved to include fashion shows as well but both buildings burned down in the early 60s. So they built the Better Living Center and the Queen Elizabeth theatre. Today, the Better Living Center is a venue for shows and festivals. And this year during the CNE it's used to house the farm animals. The Queen Elizabeth Theatre is a venue for concerts and comedy shows and other types of shows. And it's used all year round, but during the CNE it's used as the arts and crafts building. All right, head up to Manitoba drive and turn right on Quebec Street. Keep walking east slash right on Quebec and you'll soon see two big buildings on either side of the street.

Let's start with the one on the left. This is the CNE food building. This has been the site of the food related exhibits since 1921, when the original food products building was built. It was replaced with this one in 1954. Food is obviously one of the big draws to The Ex, and nowadays it's known for the weird flavour combos. Those are the things that get the most press I think, for example, this year people are writing about ketchup and mustard flavoured soft serve ice cream, deep fried coffee, Krispy Kreme pulled pork, and mac and cheese lemonade. Disgusting. Before the original food building was built, the land was used to showcase agricultural exhibits and livestock and when the building was being built, those things moved to the more eastern parts of the grounds. That first building was a grand looking Italianate building and it had these fancy floodlights at the entrance. It sounded really cool. They chose to replace it to modernize it, which is what we have today. Originally, it was used to genuinely sell food products from vendors- like food you would take home not necessarily eat immediately. There was an element of fair food too, of course. There's actually quite a long history of fair food just in North America in general. But today I feel there's definitely more of a push for the like immediate foods that you eat at the fair. Some of the classic CNE fair foods that have been around for decades are Tiny Tom Donuts, you get this iconic little white bag full of mini doughnuts that are sprinkled with your flavor of choice. They've been around since the 60s. Another one is ice cream waffles which is basically an ice cream sandwich made with waffles. They started being sold at the CNE in 1940. The other night a bag of tiny Tom donuts was my dinner.

Alright, let's look at the right side of the street, now. This is BMO Field, a huge stadium that opened in 2007. The exhibition grounds have had sports areas since the beginning, they were called grandstands. Basically, they were the stadium seating structure for event watching with you know a big vast space at the bottom of it for the events themselves. They were used to watch horse racing sporting events, shows we'll talk a bit more about them later. There were four grandstands over time, all roughly in this location. The first one was built in the late 1800s. And it either burned down or was demolished. I couldn't find the actual demise of that building. Same with the second grandstand. But the third was built in 1907. And it had a capacity of 16,000. It did burn down in 1946. And then the fourth one which was called the Exhibition Stadium was built in 1948. It was a modernist building. It originally had 22,000 seats and eventually could hold 54,000 It was the home base for the Toronto Argonauts and the Blue Jays and it even hosted NASCAR races and concerts like Billy Idol and Tina Turner. But not together. Though, that would be a pretty fun concert, I think. In 1989, the sports teams left for the Skydome and the Rogers Center and the building wasn't looking too great. People were calling it "the mistake by the lake". It was demolished in 1999. And for a while it was just a parking lot in this area but then BMO Field came around. It's Canada's first soccer-specific stadium, but has hosted the Grey Cup as well as rugby and lacrosse games, and in 2014 it hosted the 2014 U-20. Women's World Cup. That was an overview of the, like, sporty history and evolution of the grandstands. But like I said they were used for so much more. I mentioned concerts, but back in the 20s and 30s there were full on events hosted here and there were one of the big attractions to the CNE. The shows would start with a few vaudeville acts then have like a group singing portion like a community would sing or I'm assuming the people in the grandstand would sing along with them. And then there would be the main event, usually a more sincere flashy show- like a production. And then they would finish it off with some fireworks.

Most of these shows were pretty racist in nature. I read that a minstrel show was part of the rotation at one point. Minstrel shows were where white people put on blackface and performed derogatory skits. In this time period, the desire to put Canada on the map through the CNE was a pretty big focus so they not only were trying to keep up with what American fairs were doing, they were trying to add a Canadian spin to it. A popular spectacle, for example, was a show where the plot was Canadian settlers and cowboys fighting off First Nations peoples until they give up and then at the celebratory end of the show, they would play patriotic songs like Maple Leaf Forever, and then cue the fireworks. Pretty gross. The grandstand also hosted airwork acts like tightrope walkers, circus acts, acrobats and tower climbers by that I mean they built these giant rickety ladders that performers would climb and mess around on just to make the audience gasp. For many years. The CNE grounds and the grandstand itself were much closer to the lake and water based events were huge too. Boats, waterskiing, swimming, the works. Most famously, Marilyn Belle arrived here after her record breaking swim across Lake Ontario in 1954, when she was 16 years old. Just west of the CNE grounds there's a park named after her. I talk about her more and about that swim in the Sunnyside episode.

On to our next stop. Keep walking east until you get to the corner of Nova Scotia Avenue and Nunavut Road, walk slightly north up to the entrance of the old building on the northeast corner.

We're standing in front of a pretty cool looking, in my opinion, Art Deco building. There's an entrance nearest to the corner and then a little bit north is another side entrance that kind of mirrors the design. The face of the entrance curves inwards, and it has three doorways with yellow brick pillars matching the rest of the building. Across the top there are these almost Greek looking engraved details on either side of an embossed horse. There's also, within the little doorways, these stained glass cool looking windows that at night you can see lit up. They just looked very cool. But back to that embossed horse. That's not just for decoration. That's because this building is the Horse Palace. Yes, horses got a palace at the CNE! It was built in 1931 to have a permanent building for the stables that were used in the Royal Winter Fair, which is another annual fair held on the CNE grounds since 1921. It was considered the best equestrian facility at the time, the Royal Winter Fair is still a thing and is considered the largest indoor agricultural and equestrian event in the world. According to their website. Since 2020, the Mounted Unit of the Toronto Police have been headquartered here- so mounted unit as in the Toronto Police who ride horses. Previously, the mounted units were distributed across the city. I don't know why we still have police on horses to be honest. Walk east on Nova Scotia Avenue along the side of the Horse Palace. Stop when you get to the intersection of two buildings. One is another old yellow brick building that's length is going east west and the other one, the newer one which you'll see plainly as the Enercare Centre, kind of intersects it at a perpendicular angle. Because of the popularity of the CNE, more buildings were commissioned in the 1920s. The Food Building was one of them. So was the Ontario government building. But one of the most notable I would say was the Coliseum arena, which is that yellowish building standing to our left. This is where the Royal Winter Fair has been hosted since its creation in 1921. When it was built, it was the largest building of its kind in North America. In addition to the Royal Winter Fair, it has a history of hosting sporting events in 1922. It hosted a record setting- like in terms of attendance- boxing match between Johnnie Dundee and Jimmy Goodrich in the 40s. The Coliseum was used as a training base for the Canadian Army during World War Two in the 60s and 70s. It was used as a concert venue. The doors, The Who, Genesis and Jimi Hendrix all played here. During the CNE, events and exhibits are held here as well, of course. In 2003, they expanded the CNE Coliseum to become a hockey arena for the AHL. It was called the Ricoh Coliseum. It was owned by Ricoh, a Japanese office supply company, but in 2018 Coca Cola purchased the naming rights for 10 years so now it's called the Coca Cola Coliseum. I wonder what it will be named in 2028. The space the newer building takes up was originally used for livestock stables, honestly, so was the land the Coliseum is on. They definitely needed a lot of livestock stables back in the day. Those were removed in the 20s to make room for both the Coliseum and the Engineering and Electrical Building which was opened here in 1928. The Engineering and Electrical Building was demolished in 1972. I'm not sure how they used the space for the next 30 years after that, but in 2005, the National Trade Center was built, now called the Enercare Centre. The Enercare Centre is Canada's largest exhibition and convention center. It's wild, it's over 1 million square feet!

Present day when children are lost, the Enercare Center is one of the places that they are brought to. They're also brought to the Better Living Center. Usually, their parents show up and claim them within 20 to 30 minutes. There's only a handful of children that get lost each year. But historically, so many children, like hundreds even 1000s of children would get lost each year at the CNE so many that they had a whole building dedicated to lost children. It was just northwest of the Food Building, and not only would parents take longer to get them then than they would in present day, but sometimes children ended up even staying overnight.

Walk South alongside the Enercare Center until you get to Princes' Boulevard and then turn left. You'll want to cross the street when you can and stop when you get to 105 Princes' Boulevard. If you're doing this walk during the CNE you'll probably want to meander through all the Midway stuff that's filling up the street here. The building we're going to will be on the south side of the street near the fancy gate on Strachan. There should be a break between vendors that allows you to walk up to the building at 105 Princes' Boulevard, get away from the chaos a little bit. There are some picnic tables set up in front of it. It's a big art deco building that says "Automotive Building" across the top.

Regardless of the path you take, I will tell you a little bit about those midway rides and games that the CNE is known for. Nowadays there are rides and games in multiple sections of the park, but traditionally they were concentrated in this area right next to the grandstand slash BMO field and wrapping around it southwest. As we talked about, the CNE was initially intended to showcase products of all kinds from agriculture to technology, but fairs in the States we're starting to have rides and games and sideshows or as some would call them... freak shows. The CNE wanted in on the action and the attraction. They dabbled in these types of shows in the 1890s. But by 1902, they decided to dedicate this area to the Midway and to the acts and rides that came with it. As I'm sure you agree, sideshows were a sad chapter in history. They typically profited off of people who were "othered". So, people with disabilities, people from different cultural backgrounds, different races, people who didn't embody gender norms. Think: bearded ladies, little people, fat people, people with physical disabilities or congenital disabilities, people brought to North America from Africa or Asia to be gawked at. I acknowledge that some people were happy to join. Some chose and found success this way or found the work fulfilling, but from my understanding, they were in the minority. Often they agreed to perform because they had a hard time finding work otherwise, or in some cases they were forced to perform or even kidnapped and made to perform. Freak shows ended at the CNE sometime in the 1970s or 80s when they started fading from popularity because people were starting to realize how gross it was to do this. I'm glad they're gone. Alrighty, let's move on to our second last stop.

Since 2017, This has been called the Beanfield Center, but in 1929, when it was built, it was the Automotive Building. It's an impressive looking building. It's got three tall, narrow arched walkways to the front doors, and it's got these big lanterns hanging in those doorways. And on either side of the entrance the building extends with multiple long windows on either side, and it's lit up really nice, too. Until the 90s, this building was used to host the auto show at the CNE. Just like it sounds people would check out new models of cars and trucks. In the 2000s the city decided to convert it into a conference center and renovated it to have conference rooms and a ballroom, apparently the largest ballroom in Toronto. This building is no longer used for the CNE, it's just a pretty building you get to walk by on your way in or out of the Princes' Gates. If you get a peek of it, because it is kind of hard to see it behind all of the vendors.

You might have noticed a lot of the buildings in the CNE are used for conference centers and trade shows. And you might be wondering how this happened, given all of the colourful history of the exhibition grounds. I know I did. From what I read, in the 50s and 60s, the public was starting to show reduced interest in the CNE. There was also to some extent a negative connotation with The Ex compared to some other events in that era, like the famous Expo 67 in Montreal. This was because The Ex was more known for midway rides and shows and the entertainment options were becoming a little bit more predictable. And mainly it was affordable. So people of all walks of life were able to go, and it's horrifying to have poor people at your event! Businesses were also losing interest in the event since they had other more effective ways of marketing their products. So what was the CNE board to do? They went the trade show route. Conventions, conference centers, so that they could have business coming to the grounds all year round. In order to build those conference centers, they tore down a number of historic buildings, many of which I've listed throughout this episode. I obviously love historic buildings and I do wish they were still here and being used. It is a huge piece of land to only have activity in once a year and from a business standpoint, it makes sense for them to want to try to use it other times of the year for money, for profit. So it makes sense for them to have these conferences and the sporting events at BMO fields and the concerts and shows at Queen Elizabeth theatre. Even so though, there are still so many buildings, so much space that is not seeing a lot of action throughout the year. So I don't know, some some housing might be nice? Throwing it out there. Anyways, let's go to our last stop the Princes' Gates see you there in 30 seconds

I was tempted to start the tour here because I honestly thought this was the original entrance just by the look of it. It's so grand. But if you've been keeping track of the timeline, the western side of the grounds was actually developed first with the Dufferin Gate as the main entrance. The eastern side saw more development in the 20s. And then again in the 50s, and 60s, and in that 20s era is when we got the impossible to miss Princes' Gates. The grandeur is obviously not an accident, it was meant to serve as a monumental gateway from the rest of the city into the exhibition grounds. It was initially built to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation. So when Canada became its own independent country. This theme is integrated into every little detail of the gates design. Let me describe it. It's made of, quote, artificial stone which is made from cement... so it's made of cement. The design is inspired by ancient Greece and Rome on each side of the main arch that's in the middle. There are nine columns, each meant to represent the provinces of Canada as they were in 1927 when it was built, so BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and PEI. Newfoundland wasn't a province yet at that point, the central arch is topped by an angel statue, a winged victory similar to the famous wing victory statue, it's meant to represent progress and a promising future. The way it does that is she's standing on a ship with a Canadian coat of arms on it. And at the base of the ship, there are these waves and sea horses. So that's her like moving forward into the future. She's holding up a maple leaf in her left hand, which is supposed to symbolize Canadian independence. So yeah, all of this comes together to show her leading us into the future, where ships will be a key mode of transport. Just joking. The original winged victory on the arch was starting to look weathered over time, so in 1987, they replaced her with a polymer resin replica. On either side of her there are two figures standing on top of each side of the arch. One is holding a cornucopia meant to symbolize fruits of harvest, which is you know, appropriate for a fair that started out with an agricultural focus. The other figure is holding beehives. These are meant to represent hardwork and prosperity. At the very end of each set of pillars there is a fountain. One of them has a female figure holding a sheaf of grain to represent farming and a male figure holding a wheel and a set of drawings to represent industry.

Funny story about the gate. It was supposed to be called the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation Gates. And like I said, it was meant to celebrate Canada becoming an independent country, which you know, on principle is bullshit, obviously, you know, like the Confederation is kind of bullshit. The land wasn't ours to take, but I'm getting to a point. So yeah, like they build this big beautiful gate to celebrate Canada becoming an independent country, you know, and they're gonna call it the Diamond Jubilee of Confederation Gates. But then they learned that Edward Prince of Wales and Prince George were coming to visit Toronto and they last minute change the name of the gate to the much simpler "Princes' Gate". So that's "princes" plural, possessive, of the gate. It's just so funny to me because they put all this work into this gate, and it's all about, you know, Canada's independence. And then as soon as they hear that royalty is coming to town, they're like, oh, don't worry, princes. This is for you. It's yours! We made it just for you!

To end the tour, I'd like to talk really quickly about the time of year the CNE typically wraps up: Labour Day. For 150 years, there has been a labour day parade, or as it began, a strike, walking from downtown Toronto through to the CNE grounds up until Dufferin Gate. Technically, when it started, they landed at Queen's Park, but over time, it evolved to go through the CNE grounds. The labour day parade started during a time where people were fighting for eight or nine hour work days. Workdays at the time were typically 10,11,12 plus hours. In April 1872, a number of unions came together and marched to Queen's Park as a working man's demonstration. It started as a group of 2000 people and they had 10,000 people by the time they finished. It did help move the needle a little bit. Just a few days later, John A Macdonald passed Canada's first labour law. But it wasn't until 1894 that Labour Day was an official public holiday in Canada. This Labour Day Parade tradition has persisted in Toronto, the official choice to go through the CNE started in 1901. It's happening this year. I will say it is a little bit ironic because the CNE has run into some labour issues themselves in recent years. This year, for example, there is a strike by the unionized safety inspectors, so they're using non-unionized workers instead, and in 2018, stagehands and technical employees were in a dispute over their expired contract at the time of the CNE. They were on strike and the CNE brought in other workers in order to open in time.

So that's the CNE! Where farming and rickety old rides meat royalty and status. If you didn't get to go this year, I hope you're still able to take a walk some day around the grounds and check out all of these buildings in the park and gardens. It's a fairly calm and quiet area the rest of the year unless there's you know, a big soccer game or a big tradeshow.

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