Canadian National Exhibition CNE

We really have come to Toronto at the best time. In summer there are so many festivals and events. The word on the street was for us to go to The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), which is pretty much the equivalent of the Royal Melbourne show but triple the size, minus the agricultural events like wood chopping or the led steer and heifer Best on show competitions.

There was an animal and farming section and I will write about that on another post. But 98% of this 'show' was made up of sideshow alleys one after the other. There were so many different ways you are able to win a prize with those carnies ready to take your money and give you 30 seconds of hope before they pull the wool over your eyes. We couldn't believe the kilometres of small little booths that were covered in giant toys and knickknacks where you could waste hundreds of dollars trying to win, (like that miniature motorbike that I never got as a kid...). As I knew Mel was a very good netball shooter, typical me was trying to find the perfect basketball game where I knew the ball could at least go through the ring and all she would have to do is sink a couple of shots and we would walk away with the giant panda. We eventually found one that was a pretty good deal, get 2 out of 4 in, WINNER. Dead eye Mel sidled up to the line, wiggled the backside, took aim and threw. My girl went all right. Not the 4 out of 4 and giant panda that we so desperately needed...but 2 in and now Roxy now has a fun little ball to play with in the backyard.

There were plenty of rides which unfortunately I was too small to go on, but Mel had a very short and very un-unerving ghost train ride. I tried to grab a photo of her going in (you can see her just popping over the entrance sign) and by the time I took my finger off the shutter button she was already back at the other side having finished the ride. Suffice to say that those rides are never the same as what they were when you were 10.


There were some other great attractions at the show. In the program Mel had seen there was a hypnotist show on one of the stages in the afternoon, so we went along to try and get a great seat only to find that it was pretty much packed out already with almost an hour to go. I quickly scooted around to see if I could find Mel a seat, unfortunately not on stage .. hehe, but was able to score one about three rows from the front. I have never seen a real live hypnotist comedy show, only the ones on TV like Hey Hey it's Saturday or Footy Show... what's his name, Shane St James, but Mel has seen one. So prior to seeing this I was a little bit sceptic about whether or not these people were real volunteers or set up actors. I was looking around the audience to see if I could see any suss members that look like planters, but everyone that got up on stage out of the audience seem like regular Joe's that were just up for an interesting experience.

Our favourite volunteer.

During the course of the show some people were obviously more easily manipulated by this hypnotist than others, and he knew just who was going to put on a good show for his audience. There was a gentleman who was there with his wife and child who this hypnotist made do some of the funniest things that Mel and I cried with laughter over. From impersonating Mick Jagger and Angus Young from AC/DC to acting as a laughter policeman that had to tell everyone to shut up in Chinese for laughing. He was our favourite & the entire show was hilarious. Whether or not it was set up or if they really were under some hypnosis it was very entertaining and it didn't really matter.


I ran into a couple of other service dog's and owners. We were comparing how much weight our dogs will have put on after the amount of food they have secretly snuffled up on the floor of the Showgrounds. I turned around one stage to see half a corndog hanging out of Roxy's mouth. She must have thought it was Christmas.



It was the 150th anniversary for the Canadian Armed Forces and they had a massive exhibit including their version of a Beefeater standing out the front, the cockpit of an FA 18 fighter jet and some cool all terrain tank that dwarfed me.

One of the highlights of the CNE was a show on ice which was performed at the Ricoh Coliseum, which is where the Toronto Marlies hockey team plays. It was a half-hour rock 'n' roll show with ice skaters, acrobats and a live band. I will write about this on another post as we have many photos.

All in all it was a fantastic day and we could probably have spread it out over two it was that that big. We slept very well on the subway on the way home.