Proposal in 1923. Sunnyside was an early amusement park in Toronto that was demolished in 1955. When Canada's Wonderland was planned, the
Greater Toronto Area lacked a seasonal amusement park that had roller coasters. The city of Toronto had previously hosted three amusement parks that had roller coasters.
Sunnyside Amusement Park closed in the 1950s to make room for the
Gardiner Expressway. The
Scarboro Beach and
Hanlan's Point amusement parks both closed in the 1920s. In 1972, the
Taft Broadcasting Company, headed by Kelly Robinson, first proposed building a theme park in the then small village of
Maple, part of
Vaughan, Ontario, located directly north of Toronto. Several other possible locations in Ontario were considered, including
Niagara Falls,
Cambridge, and
Milton, but Maple was finally selected because of its proximity to the City of Toronto and the
400-series of highways. Others had seriously considered the Greater Toronto Area as a spot to build a theme park, among them the Conklin family (whose
Conklin Shows ran various midways around North America, including Toronto's
Canadian National Exhibition midway in
Exhibition Place).
Walt Disney also considered the idea before choosing Florida for the
Walt Disney World Resort, rejecting Toronto mainly because of
the city's seasonal climate, which would make the operating season too short to be profitable. Construction of the park was opposed on multiple fronts. Many cultural institutions in Torontosuch as
Ontario Place, the
Royal Ontario Museum, and the operators of the Canadian National Exhibitionfelt that the Toronto market was not large enough to support more competition. Other groups that fought the building of Wonderland included a Vaughan residential association called SAVE, which thought the increased traffic would reduce property values. People in the region were concerned that the new park would be similar in aesthetics to a
carnival or midway.
Construction and opening On 13 June 1979,
Ontario Premier Bill Davis depressed the plunger on an electronic detonating device at
St. Lawrence Hall in downtown Toronto, triggering an explosion on the site. Construction began immediately and continued on to early 1981. Canadian companies were partners on the preliminary design and engineering of the project. Construction of the mountain alone involved a dozen local companies under Cincinnati engineer Curtis D. Summers. Two years later on 23 May 1981, Davis and Taft Broadcasting President Dudley S. Taft Sr. officially opened Canada's Wonderland to the public. The spectacular opening ceremony included 10,000 helium balloons, 13
parachutists, 350 white
doves, and a
pipe band. Four children, representing the
Arctic,
Pacific,
Atlantic, and
Great Lakes regions of Canada, each poured a
vial of water from their home regions into the park's fountain. Hockey superstar
Wayne Gretzky also appeared as a special guest, helping to raise the
Canadian flag. 12,000 guests were welcomed into the park for the first time. The park cost $120 million ($ million in dollars) to build. Since the closure of
Crystal Beach Park in
Fort Erie in 1989, Canada's Wonderland remains the only amusement park in Ontario with wooden roller coasters in operation. Since the closure of Mighty Flyer in
Exhibition Place in Toronto in 1992, Canada's Wonderland is the only location in Ontario with wooden roller coasters in operation. in 2001, then named Drop Zone: Stunt Tower, in reference to the
Paramount film of the same name.
Kings Entertainment Company operated the park during the 1980s and early 1990s. The park has since added metal detectors at the front gate, with additional security, but not as a direct result of this event. , a
Halloween-themed event featuring haunted house attractions. In 2005, the park introduced
Fearfest, a
Halloween event featuring various haunted house attractions in different themed areas. Though the section for smaller children was closed off, the park continued running many of the thrill rides during the event, such as the
Thunder Run, in which patrons ride a mining type train through a mountain. During the Halloween season, it is re-themed as the "Haunted" Thunder Run, with a darker tunnel and more strobe lights, fog machines, and black-light lit scenes featuring the "skeletons" of miners. In 2006, the park introduced Spooktacular, a child-oriented Halloween event. The event included children's rides, costume contests and a treasure hunt. Spooktacular was open on weekends during the daytime, while Fearfest remained open at night. Fearfest was renamed
Halloween Haunt and Spooktacular was renamed Camp Spooky.
Cedar Fair era On 14 May 2006,
Cedar Fair announced it was interested in acquiring the five
Paramount theme parks from
CBS Corporation (successor of
the original Viacom), including Canada's Wonderland. CBS stated that amusement parks did not fit the company's new strategy. The acquisition was completed on 30 June 2006. After the sale, Cedar Fair began to drop the name "Paramount" from all of the former Paramount properties it acquired, as a result, the park reverted to its original name of ''Canada's Wonderland'' in January 2007. The 2007 season was a transition year throughout the park and included renaming the movie-themed rides since Cedar Fair did not hold the rights to Paramount film properties. By the start of the 2008 season, all Paramount logos and similar references had been removed. On 19 July 2009,
stunt performer Nik Wallenda walked on a tight rope from the pond area of Medieval Faire to Wonder Mountain. For the 2010 season,
Planet Snoopy opened to the public, which was a retheme of both "The Happy Land of Hanna-Barbera" & "Nickelodeon Central" areas of the park to align Canada's Wonderland with the rest of the Cedar Fair chain. The area consisted of a retheme of all of the rides and facilities of both areas into one cohesive section themed to the
Peanuts comics (both Ghoster Coaster & Swan Lake remained unchanged following the change), along with the addition of three new rides for children and families from
Zamperla; Lucy's Tugboat, Peanuts 500, and Snoopy's Revolution. during the ride's opening season in 2011 In 2011, Canada's Wonderland opened
WindSeeker, a tower-swing ride, making it the tallest ride in the park until
Leviathan opened in 2012. The park also announced the addition of the
Starlight Spectacular show, which started on 25 June 2011 and ended on Labour Day, 3 September 2011. It was a nightly 'light and sound show' designed to celebrate the park's 30th anniversary; it was shown at 10 pm EST every night on International Street. In 2012,
Leviathan, a
Bolliger & Mabillard Hypercoaster (also classified as a
giga coaster), opened, surpassing the Canadian records set by Behemoth in 2008, becoming the tallest and fastest roller coaster in Canada. Norm Pirtovshek, general manager of Canada's Wonderland, said that the Leviathan as a new attraction would help to spread out visitors. It was also described as part of a "roller coaster renaissance" where theme parks distinguished itself by introducing bigger and faster rides to attract guests. In addition to Leviathan, Canada's Wonderland also opened the
Dinosaurs Alive! walk-through dinosaur exhibit, which was located in
Planet Snoopy. during its opening season in 2011 On 27 May 2012, for the first time in the park's history, Canada's Wonderland in partnership with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association hosted the Run For Vaughan, a one-kilometre, 5-kilometre, and 10-kilometre run to raise money for the planned
Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital (then known as Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital) that would be built on land once owned by Canada's Wonderland north of Major Mackenzie Drive. On 30 August 2013, Canada's Wonderland announced that
Wonder Mountain's Guardian would open inside Wonder Mountain in May 2014. The attraction is a
4-D interactive dark ride/ roller coaster with animations from Montreal-based
Triotech. Park management also announced that
SkyRider would close Labour Day, 2014. in 2014, a year after it opened at the park In October 2014, a man was fatally stabbed at Halloween Haunt. SkyRider was removed at the end of the 2014 season and relocated to
Cavallino Matto in
Tuscany, Italy, as
Freestyle in 2015. For the 2015 season, Splash Works opened two new attractions, which marked the first expansion to the waterpark since 2002. Both attractions were relocated from
Ontario Place, however they never opened in their original locations and were sent to Splash Works. Typhoon is a set of two partially enclosed tube slides with funnels, and was formerly known as
Topsy Turvy. Splash Station is an interactive children's play structure similar to the adjacent Pump House, featuring two slides, numerous water features, and a tipping bucket. Though not announced prior to its opening,
SlingShot also for the 2015 season in the dry park. This upcharge attraction catapults riders nearly 300 ft (91.5m)in the air, and reaches speeds approaching 100 km/h (60 mph). Near the close of the 2015 season, Canada's Wonderland announced that two new flat rides would be added in 2016: Skyhawk (a
Gerstlauer Sky Roller) and
Flying Eagles (a Larson International Flying Scooters). Cedar Fair CEO Matt Ouimett also confirmed in December 2015 that
virtual reality (VR) headsets would be added to Thunder Run in 2016. Available to riders for an additional upcharge fee, the experience is co-developed with
Mack Rides, a German amusement ride company. The VR headgear is a type of
head-mounted display that animates the entire field of vision to produce a 360-degree
3D experience. On 26 August 2016, Canada's Wonderland announced that a new flat ride would be added in the 2017 season: Soaring Timbers (a
Mondial Inferno). The ride is stated to be the first of its kind in North America. The park also announced a Splash Works expansion for 2017 in the form of Muskoka Plunge, a tall waterslide complex featuring four "trap-door" speed slides. The slides replaced Body Blast. On 16 August 2017, Canada's Wonderland announced the addition of Flying Canoes for the 2018 season. Flying Canoes is an interactive family ride that allows riders to control their journey of flight in two-person canoes that rotate speedily around a circuit. They also announced the addition of Lumberjack for 2018. Made by Italian manufacturer
Zamperla, Lumberjack is a thrill ride that takes guests to heights of on two swinging axe-themed pendulums, propelling them into a looping 360-degree experience. In addition to these two attractions, the park announced an expansion to the Splash Island pool (located in Splash Works), which doubled the size of the pool and included new interactive water features and children's slides, along with shaded seating areas for families to relax. The area was renamed to Lakeside Lagoon following these upgrades. under construction in October 2018 On 15 August 2018, Canada's Wonderland announced
Yukon Striker, a
B&M Dive Coaster which opened to the public on 3 May 2019. The ride features a drop into an underwater tunnel in the centre of the
Vortex helix, which has a top speed of 130 km/h. Upon opening, the ride became the tallest, fastest, and longest dive coaster in the world and features four inversions, more than any other dive coaster, including the first vertical loop on a Dive Coaster. They also announced the opening of Frontier Canada, a
gold-rush-themed attraction area that includes Yukon Striker, Mighty Canadian Minebuster, Lumberjack, Soaring Timbers, Flying Canoes, Vortex,
Timberwolf Falls and White Water Canyon. Canada's Wonderland also announced
Winterfest, an immersive holiday-themed event. In addition, the park announced that
Dinosaurs Alive! would be closing on 28 October 2018. The attraction's former gift shop is still used seasonally for WinterFest. On 4 February 2019, the park announced that
Orbiter would not be opening for the 2019 season. Since the announcement, the attraction has been removed from the park and the area surrounding it was replaced with a pathway connecting Action Zone and Frontier Canada. On 14 August 2019, Canada's Wonderland announced the addition of two new attractions for the 2020 season. The first, Beagle Brigade Airfield, is a new children's ride located in Planet Snoopy. The attraction is mostly identical to the version at sister park
Worlds of Fun in
Kansas City, Missouri, which share the same name, but Wonderland's version is partially covered. In addition, the park announced Mountain Bay Cliffs for Splash Works, which is a cliff-jumping style attraction featuring multiple platforms of varying heights, the highest of which is . Both of these attractions opened in 2021. On 22 November 2019, WinterFest debuted at Canada's Wonderland. WinterFest is a holiday event. During WinterFest, five million energy-efficient
LED lights were strung on 800 trees, the buildings, the décor, and on Wonder Mountain. On International Street, the lake had been frozen into a skating rink called Snow Flake Lake. There were eight themed areas.
COVID-19 pandemic Restrictions placed by the
Government of Ontario to combat the
COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the park remaining closed for the 2020 season. This also led to the cancellations of that season's Halloween Haunt and Winterfest events. Canada's Wonderland posted a series of four horror vignettes 30 October 2020 titled Nighttime Walk to celebrate Haunt featuring the empty park. The park attempted to reopen in May 2021, but it was postponed to July 5 of the same year. An online reservation system was required for guests to book the date and time of their visit during the shortened 2021 season. As a result, 2020 and 2021 season passes were extended to partially include the 2022 season and refunds were not officially offered. Both Beagle Brigade Airfield and Mountain Bay Cliffs had their opening years pushed back to the 2021 season. Also due to the pandemic, the 2020 and 2021 editions of
Toronto's original Santa Claus Parade – normally held on the streets in
Downtown Toronto in previous years – was pre-recorded from Canada's Wonderland with no spectators on site and was broadcast on Eastern Standard Time's
prime time on 5 December 2020 and 4 December 2021, respectively. From 29 March 2021 until summer 2021, Canada's Wonderland served as a drive-in mass
COVID-19 vaccination site.
Additions in the 2020s On 16 June 2022, Canada's Wonderland announced Lazy Bear Lodge (marketed as
Lazy Bear Lodge: Wood Fire Grille), which became the park's largest dining facility to date. The restaurant is located on the hillside beside Vortex's first drop, overlooking Yukon Striker and the rest of Frontier Canada, and features seating for over 500 guests, an indoor and outdoor bar, two floors, a multi-level outdoor patio, and numerous fire pits for guests to relax by. The menu is a Canadian-inspired rustic-grill BBQ, featuring local ingredients and two meat smokers. In addition, the menu is rotational, changing for each major season. The restaurant opened to the public on 17 September 2022, with the indoor bar opening a week prior. , June 2023 On 11 August 2022, Canada's Wonderland announced two new attractions for the 2023 season. The first, Tundra Twister, is a first-of-its-kind flat ride from
Mondial that is located in Frontier Canada next to Yukon Striker's zero-g winder inversion, creating many near-misses with the coaster. The ride features rotating gondola arms that freely rotate, while the ride's base spins 360 degrees at heights of and speeds of . The second was
Snoopy's Racing Railway, a family launch coaster manufactured by
ART Engineering and the park's 18th roller coaster overall. Snoopy's Racing Railway is located in Planet Snoopy and takes up a portion of the land that was previously occupied by Dinosaurs Alive!. The coaster opened to the public on 18 May 2023, and Tundra Twister opened to the public a few weeks later on 3 June 2023. On 10 August 2023, the park announced Moosehorn Falls, a new waterslide for Splash Works for the 2024 season. The slide features six-person rafts travelling down a course of small drops and turns before plummeting down a large drop into a wall, leading into the final splash pool. The name "Moosehorn Falls" is inspired by waterfalls on the Moosehorn Trail in the
Fundy National Park in
New Brunswick. The trail and park is located within the
UNESCO-designated Fundy Biosphere Region. The attraction was planned to open in June 2024, but was delayed until August. On 8 February 2024, Canada's Wonderland announced that Xtreme Skyflyer would permanently shut down for the 2024 season after 26 years of operating. The attraction gave over 1.17 million rides prior to its removal. This closure was cited for future expansion and development by the park.
Six Flags era On 1 July 2024, Cedar Fair merged with
Six Flags, and the combined
Six Flags Entertainment Corporation took over Canada's Wonderland. in August 2025 On 8 August 2024, the park announced the construction of a
Premier Rides launched coaster for the 2025 season known as
AlpenFury. The ride is in length and feature a launch out of
Wonder Mountain at along with nine inversions, setting a
record for inversions on a launched roller coaster in North America. Concurrent with AlpenFury's addition, the International Festival section of the park was renamed and re-themed to Alpenfest to match the new ride. The roller coaster opened to guests on 12 July 2025.
Time Warp closed permanently at the end of the 2024 season, with official confirmation on 13 March 2025 and subsequent removal. ==Grounds and attractions==