What was Expo 67?

Expo 67 was the World's Fair held in Montreal from April 27 to October 29, 1967 to mark the centennial of Canadian Confederation. It was the most successful World's Fair of the twentieth century by attendance, drawing 50.3 million visitors over six months, more than twice the population of Canada at the time. The fair occupied 410 hectares of land on Île Sainte-Hélène and the artificial Île Notre-Dame in the St. Lawrence River, both expanded for the event.

The fair's theme, 'Man and His World' (in French, 'Terre des Hommes'), came from a phrase in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's book of the same name. Sixty-two countries built pavilions, including the geodesic dome of the United States Pavilion designed by R. Buckminster Fuller (now the Montreal Biosphere), the inverted-pyramid Katimavik of the Canadian Pavilion, the seven-pointed Habitat 67 housing complex by Moshe Safdie, and the Czechoslovak Pavilion's Laterna Magika multimedia theatre.

Expo 67 marked Canada's emergence as a confident, modern, multicultural nation on the world stage. Queen Elizabeth II opened the fair, and visitors included U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, Princess Grace of Monaco, French President Charles de Gaulle (whose 'Vive le Québec libre!' speech from the balcony of Montreal City Hall on July 24, 1967 caused a diplomatic incident), Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin, and astronauts of the Apollo programme.

The legacy of Expo 67 continues to shape Canadian identity. Habitat 67 remains a residential building. The Biosphere is now an environmental science museum. The Place des Nations on Île Sainte-Hélène hosts public events. Île Notre-Dame hosts the Canadian Grand Prix Formula 1 race each June and the Casino de Montréal. Expo 67's monorail was Canada's first urban rail transit since the Toronto subway, and the fair's site is part of Parc Jean-Drapeau today.