The Shows

Most theme park tourists enter the World Showcase from Future World. Once you reach this part of Epcot, you can either turn left and head to the Mexico Pavilion or turn right and go to the Canada Pavilion. Since you have a 50/50 chance of walking past the Canada portion of the World Showcase each trip, you’ve likely stumbled into one of the park’s shows at some point. They’re kind of hard to miss.

The most popular ones are now retired. Called the Canadian Lumberjack show, this performance included feats of strength such as rapid log-cutting and impressively accurate ax-throwing. And if you love to see men in plaid, well, you should visit Canada. Unfortunately, that’s the only place you can watch this sort of show now that Disney has stopped running these performances. Thankfully, they’ll live on forever in the memories of Epcot fanatics…and on YouTube.

People also loved the musical stylings of a band called Off Kilter. They were a Canadian group with a distinctly Celtic sound. The incongruity of roaring electric guitars and bagpipes made for an unforgettable music style, but they too ended their run. And they too live on forever thanks to YouTube.

The current show at the Canada Pavilion isn’t constant. Disney now hires performing acts to play a few months at a time at the venue. Past acts include Les Parfaits circus troupe and Bodh'aktan, and the one change Disney has made with each act is that unlike Off Kilter, all of the musicians are Canadian. Yes, the most beloved artists ever at the Canada Pavilion weren’t Canadian…although one was the grandson of a Montreal Canadiens hockey player, the equivalent of royalty in the country.

The live show you get at the pavilion is entirely dependent on when you visit…with one exception. Canadian Holiday Voyagers runs constantly throughout the holiday season.

The Attraction

Disney park planners didn’t spend much time coming up with the name for the Canada Pavilion’s attraction. It’s simply entitled O Canada!, a reference to the national anthem of the country. This attraction is one of the few places at the World Showcase that offers an informational film about the host country. It’s a Circle-Vision 360° movie travelogue of some of the finest elements of the Great White North.

The original version of O Canada! was a bit of an uncomfortable subject for a time. Filmed in the late 1970s, it used a lot of stereotypes about the Canadian people. The Canadian government went so far as to lobby Disney to update the story to make it less cliché, and park planners finally obliged in 2007. You can watch the current version here. Frankly, the most memorable aspect is the theme song, Canada (You’re a Lifetime)

The Shopping

Do you like Moose socks? Sweaters with curling references? Pajamas with Maple Leafs on them? Or is there a frontier living provision that will help you survive a harsh winter? Northwest Mercantile has you covered! Plus, they have real maple syrup, not that imitation stuff they sell in Vermont.

Shopping at the Canada Pavilion is actually a lot of fun, as long as you’re willing to embrace the cultural stereotypes. Many of my closest friends are Canadian, and I always enjoy texting them pictures of new hockey shirts here. The overall favorite among my Canadian brethren is, “Don’t Make Me Use My Hockey Mom Voice.”

In addition to the mercantile store, you’ll find The Wood Cart here. This is a fun place to spend some time, as the cart offers engraving services. You can find a leather product that you like, and add your name or initials to it for a modest fee.

Frankly, you’ll find better shopping opportunities at other pavilions, but Canada is still a fun place to browse, especially if you’ve spent a lot of time with Canadians.