Canadian International Air Show 2025

The 76th annual Toronto Air Show, or Canadian International Air Show (CIAS), is now on for the Labour Day weekend running Aug 30 to Sept 1 and with an initial practice on Friday, August 29. All shows will fall between noon and 3:40pm so keep your eyes on the skies over Toronto and Lake Ontario near Exhibition Place to see the planes take centre stage as an important part of the Canadian National Exhibition.

F-35

Some cool aircraft are participating in 2025 such as the P51 Mustang, the CF-18 and F-35 along with the long range patrol plane the Aurora, of course the Canadian Snowbird air demonstration team will be closing out the show.

Canadian Snowbirds

I find Hanlan's Point Beach near the Island Airport to be one of the best places to watch the aerial show, you can see the CN Tower and the City's skyline while the sun is behind you. It's less busy on the island and you can relax in the water waiting for the show to begin. Keep in mind that the beach is clothing optional so it might not be the place to watch for some.

CF-18

Northern Stars Pitts Team

The Snowbirds with the P-51 Mustang

See more plane pics after the jump.

Toronto Dragon Festival 2025

Flowing, golden dragons are part of the Toronto Dragon Festival happening down at City Hall from Aug 29 to 31. The 6th annual free festival runs from 11am to 11pm Friday and Saturday and 11am to 9pm on Sunday in Nathan Phillips Square. Performers will put on lion and dragon dances high overhead while balancing on poles, vendors will be selling Asian street foods and a Luminati Night Light Show will take place after dark. The reflecting pool will be used for the Reflection Water Show and a fashion runway show.

From the festival website, "This year’s Festival promises mythical encounters and futuristic thrills. For the first time ever, beloved figures from Black Myth: Wukong and Chinese mythology’s iconic Nezha will come to life in vibrant performances, turning the square into a live-action fantasy universe. Don’t miss your chance to snap photos and interact with these legendary characters! Adding to the excitement, the festival will feature humanoid robots and robot dogs – dancing, interacting, and showing off their skills along with our dragons and lions, in a one-of-a-kind showcase that merges ancient cultural artistry with tomorrow’s technology."

Mayor Olivia Chow joins the lions

Lions performing on high poles

See more of the dragon festival after the jump.

HMCS Haida National Historic Site

Along Hamilton Harbour's Pier 8 is His Majesties Canadian Ship (HMCS) Haida National Historic Site, floating much like it did in Toronto near Ontario Place before it was spruced up and moved to Hamilton. And Hamilton Harbour itself is also being beautified with great multi-use paths, parks, restaurants, marinas and other attractions.

A memorial for the port crane sits beside the ship

The large warship was made during WWII and later took part in the Korean and Cold Wars, serving Canada from 1943 to 1963 before it was decommissioned and became the ceremonial flagship of the Canadian Navy. The series of destroyers were made for Britain (where they were designed and built), Canada and Australia with 13 sunk during the Second World War.

From the ship's website, "HMCS Haida is Canada’s “most fightingest ship,” the first-ever ceremonial flagship of the Royal Canadian Navy, and the last of the twenty-seven tribal class destroyers in the world. Canada’s most famous warship served in the Royal Canadian Navy from 1943 to 1963, participating in the Second World War, the Korean Conflict, and the Cold War. HMCS Haida is now a Parks Canada National Historic Site docked in Hamilton, Ontario. As a museum ship, she now serves as a place to remember, explore, and connect. HMCS Haida began service escorting supply convoys to Murmansk, in Russia, above the Arctic Circle. Convoys were run in winter, when there is almost constant darkness, to make it more difficult for the German Lufftwaffe to spot them and direct submarine wolfpacks to attack. HMCS Haida and the ship's men earned their first battle honour, an honourary distinction recognizing active participation in battle for this Arctic service, during which the German battlecruiser Scharnhorst was sunk."

After a long period of distinguished service Haida was decommissioned from the Navy in 1963 and a private group turned the vessel into a museum ship beside Ontario Place. The ship was bought by the Ontario Government in 1970 and it was later transferred to Parks Canada in 2002, refurbished and moved to Hamilton. The floating museum opened in 2004 as a Parks Canada National Historic Site and for less than $5 you can visit the ship yourself.

See more of the ship after the jump.

Garrison Petawawa Military Museum

We were camping at Bonnechere Provincial Park, way east of Toronto, when we decided to visit Canadian Forces Base Petawawa, also known as Garrison Petawawa, to check out their Military & Canadian Airborne Forces Museum.

CFB Petawawa was for a number of years the home of the Canadian Airborne Regiment until it was disbanded in 1995. There still are a number of units that have incorporated airborne elements within their ranks including part of the Royal Canadian Regiment (RCR) and the Queen's Own Rifles (QOR) of Canada (a reserve parachute company). In addition the Canadian Special Operations Regiment (CSOR) performs special airborne operations when required.

The base was founded in 1905 along the banks of the Petwawa and Ottawa Rivers, providing training and homes for several units of the military and for a time also a home for prisoners of war in both World Wars. Admittance is free but they also ask for voluntary donations if you want to support their work.

Displays, both inside and outside the museum, are numerous and highlight both Airborne memorabilia and the general military exploits and equipment of Canada relating to the base and it's personnel. You can find photos, artifacts, uniforms, weapons and documents inside while outside there is a number of tanks and other equipment, including a Dakota transport plane painted in the striped colours for service in Europe dropping paratroopers during the initial invasion.

The rappelling and jump tower on base for training

Canadian International Air Show 2025 coming to Toronto Labour Day weekend

The EX is on and coming to a close soon, but not before the Canadian International Air Show helps to end the upcoming Labour Day holiday weekend with a fantastic show in the skies over Toronto. With three shows taking place Saturday to Monday, August 30 to September 1, 2025 and with a bonus practice show on Friday, August 29, all from noon till 3:40pm. UPDATE: See my post with the 2025 air show here.

This is North America's longest running air show and this year will mark the 76th year of the CIAS and you can find this year's performers listed below.

Canadian Forces Snowbirds
F-35 Demonstration Team
Dan Fortin – Nanchang CJ6
Edenvale Classic Aircraft Foundation – Fleet Cornell
Luke Penner – Extra 330SC
Marco Rusconi & The P-51 Mustang
Mike & Samantha Tryggvason – AirShow Cat Wingwalker
Northern Stars – Pitts team
RCAF – CP-140 Aurora
CF 18 Demonstration
RCAF CH-146 Griffon
Trevor Rafferty & the Christen Eagle

Note the Ministry of Natural Resources CL-415 Water Bomber has been cancelled. A statement about the water bomber released by the show, "We are disappointed to announce that The Ministry of Natural Resources Water Bomber has withdrawn from the CIAS 2025. In understandable circumstances, this asset is needed for critical firefighting operations across Canada right now. Our thoughts are with all those affected by wildfires this summer."

Ontario's last wooden railway Water Tower

Specifically the last wooden railway water tower on a wooden base structure and it is located in Barry's Bay, northeast of Toronto by a couple of hours. You can find it in the town's Water Tower Park! The towers were required during the early years of railroads as the steam locomotives needed water to boil to produce steam to power the engine. The railway was also very important to Barry's Bay as the lines were busy transporting lumber in and out of the area in the early 19th century.

It is easy to understand why there aren't too many railway water towers left, firstly there aren't anymore steam trains in active service (beyond the few tourist trains like the South Simcoe Railway) since they ended steam locomotive service in 1960, secondly a number of railway lines became unsustainable and shut down (luckily many have become recreational rail trails, or multi-use paths) and this is the case with Barry's Bay CN rail line, it ceased operations in the 1970s, the tracks were removed in 1984 and the line was converted to the JR Booth Heritage Railway Trail. This was going on throughout North America and most of the old equipment which was no longer required were allowed to fall apart or were actively destroyed for safety or development reasons.

This wooden tank was two-stories high and had a capacity of 60,000 gallons, with a shallow roof on a wood frame, held together with 14 iron hoops and lugs along the outside of the tank, all sitting on top of 12 timber posts on a concrete pad. It was actually the second tank as the first was built in 1894, dismantled and replaced in 1943, by 1964 it was unused and sold to the village in 1965 for less than $80. In 1975 it was going to be demolished due to its deteriorated condition but the community rallied for saving the tower and in 1977 it received its historical, protected designation. It took several years for the people to setup a restoration committee and finally in 2000 the Water Tower was restored and dedicated in the new park.

The park has quite a few attractions including commemorative historical plaques and a small section of rail line with a velocipede (a railway bike), a caboose (also not really used nowadays either), a wind phone memorial in addition there is a small, wooden train and an old steam tractor.

Submarine museum HMCS Ojibwa in Port Burwell

We finally hit the road to Lake Erie and stopped in Port Burwell to take the full tour of the decommissioned Oberon Class Cold War submarine as we had previously only been in the torpedo room. Port Burwell is just over two hours south west of Toronto, but a world away from the hustle and bustle - and extensive construction happening in the city, full of long beaches and cool places to see.

Over 5 stories high and almost 300 feet long the naval ship provides an interesting view of the tight spaces that sailors had to endure on month long voyages around the world. You learn on the tour that the ship was an electric-diesel propelled submarine, designed to run on batteries and be recharged by their diesel engine. It was quiet and apparently sounded like a school of fish to anyone listening.

Made during the turbulent times of the sixties when the USSR was our main potential enemy, an enemy that could ignite a new world war. Instead they played cat and mouse games with each other and occasionally got into wars by proxy. Ojibwa was constructed in England and transferred to Canada before it was scheduled to go into service with the British and after a long period of service for Canada it was decommissioned in 1998 and towed to Port Burwell in 2012 to be part of a future naval museum planned for the town. The museum is still to come but the submarine is open for tours.

The amusing part of the tour is that it seems like the exploits, both exciting and routine are highly confidential and secret so you really come out of the submarine without knowing what it really did during the cold war.

See more photos of the vessel after the jump.

Avro Arrow in the wild

A large replica of Canada's ultimate fantasy airplane, known as the CF-105 Avro Arrow, looking like it is blasting off in pursuit of bad guys is located at a park in Barry's Bay, Ontario. The town is just under 4 hours northeast from Toronto so plan your trip if you want to see the replica yourself.

The story has always been that this jet fighter would have conquered the air fleets of the whole world because it was so good, but Canada's desire to have nuclear weapons meant that the budget had to be trimmed and the plane was cancelled. Not only cancelled but destroyed. They did find one model launched into Lake Ontario and brought to the surface rather recently, so obviously they couldn't destroy it at the time, otherwise that one would have been destroyed as well. So we weep for the loss of the super supreme plane.

Barry's Bay connection to the Avro Arrow was the Canadian Polish pilot Janusz Zurakowski, whom the park is named after, who lived in the area after WWII. He fought in the war as a Spitfire pilot and immigrated to Canada in the 1950's. After the war he became a test pilot and worked on and flew the Avro Arrow. The park was opened in 2003 and includes posters, a spitfire weathervane, a gazebo and the model of the famous supersonic jet interceptor.

This Avro replica is 22 feet long and over 12 feet wide and was built by Gerard and Peter Trader along with Ron Coulas and Morris Towns.

A Spitfire weathervane

Sankofa Day Celebration in Yonge-Dundas Square

Just kidding, it's Sankofa Day in Sankofa Square, formally Yonge-Dundas Square and the celebration is on Saturday, August 23 from 10am to 11pm. The Day is special as it is the UNESCO International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, observed annually on August 23rd and is a time for reflection and healing; "Looking Back. Building Forward."

The free celebration is a day of culture, community, food, art and music which will end with a free closing party featuring MOONSHINE.

From the Square's website, "Sankofa Day features a vibrant cultural showcase that includes a celebration of Afro-Caribbean culture with JERK X JOLLOF, an Afrodiasporic DJ set to groove to by Afrique Like Me, and a live performance by Indigenous artist Natasha Fisher. The stage will also feature a special free DJ set by the legendary Kardinal Offishall, presented as part of the iDREAM Awards. Attendees can also grab commemorative giveaways, explore art installations by Nicole Nomsa Moyo, watch the Everyone vs. Racism Graffiti Project come to life, and enjoy a Caribbean Film Festival screening."

Looking Back. Building Forward