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Paramount Canada's Wonderland is an Amusement Park in Vaughan, Ontario , a northern suburb of Toronto . The park has one of the greatest variety of rides in North America, with over 200 attractions. Wonderland is on the east side of Highway 400 between Rutherford Road (exit 33) and Major Mackenzie Drive (exit 35), 13 km (8 miles) north of Highway 401 , 6 km (3 miles) from Highway 407 and 64 km (41 miles) south of Barrie . It is bounded by Highway 400 to the west, Jane Street to the east and has three entrances. Regular transit access is provided by York Region Transit , while GO Transit , Brampton Transit , and Mississauga Transit all run special services, as does YRT from Newmarket and Markham . The park season runs from approximately early May to mid-October. ATTRACTIONS Today, Wonderland has over 200 attractions, including over 60 thrill rides. The park has North America's 3rd greatest number of Roller Coasters with 14 in total, and North America's greatest variety. The park features eight themed areas on 330 acres (1.3 km&2) of land which includes a 20 acre (81,000 m&2) waterpark called Splash Works. Splash Works has over 2 million gallons (8,000 m&2) of heated water, Canada's largest outdoor Wave Pool measuring 36,000 square feet (3,300 m&2), a lazy river, and 16 water slides. ''Other Rides'' Sledge Hammer Pysclone Drop Zone Cliffhanger Nightmares In 1983, Wonderland built the Kingswood Music Theatre, a state of the art 15,000 seat amphitheatre that used to play host to many "big-name" concerts. In recent years, the number of these concerts has dwindled to none at all, as many major artists have chosen to play at the Molson Amphitheatre at Ontario Place in downtown Toronto. For the past few years, Kingswood has played host mainly to cultural events. The SplashWorks waterpark is featured in the southwest quadrant; a small artificial mountain forms the park's central feature. The park's themed areas are as follows:
Water slides Roller Coasters See Also: Rides at Paramount Canada's Wonderland
Flat Rides
FORMER ATTRACTIONS
A number of rides and attractions have been renamed to correspond with area theme changes, most notable of which is the northern region of Hanna Barbara Land . PARK HISTORY It was as far back as 1972 when the and Milton, Ontario , but the site in Maple was finally selected because of its proximity to the City of Toronto and the 400-series of highways. Taft wasn't the first company to pinpoint Toronto as being a potential home to a theme park. Other companies including the Conklin family (who's Conklin Shows ran various midways around North America) had their own plans for a park in the Toronto area. Even Walt Disney investigated the idea of a park in Ontario, but decided the climate too cold and the operating season too short to be sustainable ( Walt Disney World would become the desired expansion site). The construction of the park was fought on multiple fronts. Many cultural institutions in Toronto felt that the new theme park would put them out of business. Many of the institutions included Ontario Place , the Royal Ontario Museum and the operators of the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) who felt that the Toronto market wasn't large enough to support more competition. Other groups that fought the building of Wonderland included a Vaughan residential association (called 'SAVE') who felt the increased traffic would reduce property values. Some of the concessions from the company included the building of a landscaped berm around the park as to reduce noise, and the visual sight of the large parking lot. Taft was concerned about opposition, to go so far as to fly to Cincinnati as to show residents and town councilors the impact of one of their theme parks on the local community. It should be noted that up until the 1970s, Amusement Parks had the reputation of being poorly designed and 'unsavory'. People in the region were concerned that the new park would be similar and aesthetic to that of a Carnival and midway like the CNE. Wonderland is also responsible for changing of the master development plan for the Province of Ontario. The government had wanted to increase residential and commercial development to the east of Toronto - in the Oshawa/Pickering region - as to have the lands to the North of Toronto to remain agricultural. Wonderland was able to convince the province to amend the planning policy for the region, and secured infrastructure improvements (including a highway overpass, and sewage systems) to be expanded and built out to the site. The subsequent improvemnts paved the way for increased developments throughout the region. Concerns were also raised about the cultural implications of allowing an American theme park to open in Canada. Many felt that it would be a "Trojan Horse" for American culture. To offset the criticism Taft planned to open Frontier Canada, a part of the park devoted to Canada's history. Early park maps show the area, and proposed attractions—including a passenger train. Only the white water ride was built. Other never realized elements to the park include a hotel and conference centre (to have built north of the park). An episode of The Littlest Hobo was set at Canada's Wonderland in the very early days of the park. Construction and opening The initial construction of the park began in April of 1979. During construction, Canadian companies partnered on the preliminary design and engineering of the project. Two years later, on May 23 , 1981 , Canada's Wonderland was officially opened by then Premier of Ontario William Davis . The spectacular opening Ceremony included 10,000 Helium Balloon s, 13 Parachutists , 350 white Dove s, 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 spectacular Fountain . Hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky also appeared as a special guest, helping to raise the Canadian Flag . Viacom takes over Originally known as Canada's Wonderland, the park was purchased by Viacom in 1993 and became a part of its network of Paramount Parks . The park's former connection to Hanna-Barbera productions was reduced after Paramount purchased the park in a successful attempt to bring families back to the park by providing children with Nickelodeon cartoon characters that were familiar to a new generation. While the Nickelodeon channel is not available in Canada, many of the network's shows air on YTV , making this decision logical. YTV had previously been involved in numerous projects at the park, including the 1992 direct-to-video ''Festival of Friends'' concert, raising money for Kids Help Phone . EXTERNAL LINKS
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