Canadian Pavilion

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Welcome to the Canadian Pavilion

Discovery

The Canadian Pavilion was conceived so Canada’s youth could communicate with their Japanese counterparts; it was designed by young Canadians for the young people of Japan. Four years ago when planning began on Canada’s participation in Expo’70, three basic facts emerged from preliminary research:

Close to 98% of visitors to the Osaka Exposition would be Japanese.

A very high percentage of all visitors would be young people under 25 years of age.
Most Japanese had only a very limited knowledge of Canada.

We therefore developed our theme “Discovery” to appeal especially to Japanese youth, earning Canada the title of “The Young Pavilion.”

The outer walls of our pavilion are designed to reflect the sky, suggesting the arctic ice, the mass of mountains, prairie vistas or the glitter of Canadian waters. The colourful spinners in the inner courtyard represent the vitality of our young country and its people.

The exhibits are a series of fast-paced audio-visual presentations followed by a free-flow display area.

In the first theatre, a Japanese-speaking computer takes over to introduce the history, economy and culture of Canada in a light-hearted way by relating to things Japanese. A wide variety of unique and exciting techniques are used in the subsequent theatres to show the challenge of our land, how Canadians have faced this challenge, urban development, and social life. The final display area reveals something of Canada’s past and present in a most unusual way!

One of the “stars” of the Canadian Pavilion is “Super Bus” (shown in this pamphlet with some of our staff). This old school bus, dressed up with dazzling colours and mod designs, travelled throughout Canada and Japan for our Expo participation.

Three Canadian provinces, Quebec, British Columbia and Ontario, have their own special pavilions at Expo’70.