Post 4 of 8: Expo 67—The Future is Now

Welcome to Post 4 of 8!

This month marks the 55th anniversary of the opening of Expo 67, still remembered as Montreal’s finest moment. The centrepiece of Canada’s Centennial celebration, Expo is constantly ranked among the greatest World’s Fairs.

Rather than pavilions conforming to cookie-cutter designs, the finest architects provided their imagination. Designers, filmmakers, and others put together a 1,000-acre showplace and playground. Everyone who was anyone was in Montreal that summer, from performers to world leaders.

Expo showed us the future. Computers examined problems that today, a 12-year-old could carry out on their smartphones. We could use the videotelephone. We could see a model of Air Canada’s supersonic transport, already on order for service in the far-off year of 1980. We could ride on the new-fangled Hovercraft. We could take a monorail, although it was called the minirail – this was the 60s after all. We could stand in line for hours to see the Labyrinth: the forerunner of IMAX. In the pavilion of the Indians of Canada, the First Nations told their story, which was different (to say the least) from patronizing, romanticized displays at earlier World’s Fairs.

Some of the future came true, some … not so much. Over the next hour, we’ll see photos from my personal collection, taken as a budding young photographer, completed by images and videos from the Internet