With the city workers’ strike causing the cancellation of a number of local Canada Day events, we decided to head to Ontario Place, not least so that we could catch the stunning firework display that forms part of the Festival of Fire.

 Set on the lakeshore, Ontario Place offers a range of entertainment aimed at families – from scaled down rides to edutainment (a ‘Wild Weather’ display) and the world’s first permanent Imax cinema (Imax is a Canadian technology), as well as a water park. We enjoyed seeing Canadian families at play, as well as live music, crazy golf and a water-ride and just soaking up the sunshine whilst watching the world sail by.

The fireworks were stunning – we sat perched on bleachers on the far end of a pier looking out across the water towards the cargo boat that forms the launch pad for the 3 night firework fiesta. It felt like another milestone to stand amongst such a huge throng of Canadians to sing ‘Oh Canada’ (the national anthem) before joining in the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ as the night skies filled with falling stars.