The roaring success of Montreal’s Expo ’67 left Canadians with a heady adrenaline buzz of enthusiasm for world’s fairs and a formidable stock of pavilion-making expertise. Even the federal and provincial bean counters were not immune. Along with their political masters they were happy to spend lavishly on more Expos. But where?

The next pavilion opportunity, Osaka’s Expo ’70, was perhaps not a first-choice venue for Canada, then still a heavily Euro-centric country. All the same, the 1964 Tokyo Olympics having begun to spark interest in Japan, Canada opted to jump in big-time with four pavilions: an elaborate federal presence plus sizable efforts by Ontario, Quebec and B.C.

Who was going to staff all these pavilions? And how would they communicate with millions of ordinary Japanese? The answers to these questions continue to reverberate more than half a century later as pavilion alumni have played key roles in Canada-Japan relations ever since.

In 1969, apart from Japanese-Canadians, Nihongo skills in Canada were limited to a small cadre of returned Christian missionary families and a few students in nascent Asian Studies programs at UBC and elsewhere. So the first draft took in all the “mish-kids” they could find – people like John Powles – or Asian-language students like Brian Smith and David Wallace. Otherwise, youths who had never dreamed of coming here suddenly found themselves taking intensive Japanese classes on their way to Kansai.

John McGee, a lanky 19-year-old farm-boy from Norval, Ontario with hair down past his shoulders, was an undergrad at Toronto’s Glendon College. One afternoon he ran into a friend who said she’d just interviewed for a job at Ontario’s pavilion. Thinking he’d like to try that, he ran upstairs only to find the pavilion team packing up. “Don’t worry,” the interviewer said. “We’ll be back in two weeks… but, ah… cut your hair, OK?” Next thing he knew he was in a very intensive six-month Japanese course. And that was the start of a very long and unlikely story.

Similar stories were happening across the country as people like Wilf Wakely, Adrienne Graham, Gordon Gardner, William Thorsell, Helga Stephenson and Eleanor Westney were drafted into the Osaka crew. As we will see, many of these people, and staff at later Expos, went on to play key roles in Canada-Japan relations and elsewhere.

Into the thick of it

“The Arthur Erickson-designed Canada Pavilion at Expo ‘70 was the most beautiful ever,” said Adrienne Graham Gardner, “with multi-level B.C. timber construction surrounding a koi pond, and an outer surface clad in mirrors that reflected the ever-changing sky. A floating stage projected into the koi pond. We had two resident performing groups for the duration, Les Feux Follets folk dancers and a group of figure skaters who performed on a state-of-the-art plastic ice surface.”

These attractions quickly gave Canada a buzz that put it among the most popular pavilions, with the USSR and U.S. topping the list. With such massive crowds that kind of popularity was a mixed blessing as upwards of 2,000 visitors per hour flowed through the gates.

Back then, few Japanese had ever been overseas and, apart from residents of cities like Tokyo and Kobe, many people had never even seen a gaijin in the flesh. So the young hosts greeting visitors at the gate were like animals at a petting zoo.

“The crowds were hard for the hosts, especially the blonde ones, and at times it was frightening,” Adrienne said. “So we had half-a-dozen Mounties in their red serge to help with crowd control and protect the staff. One of the RCMP was nisei and, as he didn’t speak Japanese, he faced much disbelief and some hostility from Japanese visitors.”

Over at the Ontario pavilion, John McGee, who has paws like a grizzly bear, was sometimes asked by astonished visitors to compare hand sizes. “Look at that,” one remarked. “We had no chance. No wonder we lost the war.”

Hosts at all the pavilions did their best with their work-in-progress language skills. But one of them, who had just learned the suffix “-so,” failed to grasp that tacking it on “kawaii” changed the meaning from “cute” to “you poor thing.” So she couldn’t understand why parents looked askance when she cooed “kawaii-so” over their wee ones.

End of the day, Expo ’70 was a great success that put Canada, hitherto little-known, on the map for Japanese. Before Expo, telling people you were Canadian typically elicited the response “samui kuni desu-ne” (what a cold country). After Expo that became, “Ah, Rocky Mountains, Banffu, Niagara-taki, Akage-no-Anne” (of Green Gables). It took another decade to pay off, but when Japanese began to travel overseas, Canada was already on their bucket list.

Okinawa’s Expo ‘75

Originally conceived to mark the reversion of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty with an ocean theme, ’75 was a second-rank event in the Expo hierarchy. This was the first pavilion manager job for John Powles, who went on to head all of Canada’s Expo efforts through Expo ’86. For Okinawa he recruited a fellow member of Canada’s missionary tribe, Bronwyn Best.

“The site was in the middle of nowhere,” Bronwyn recalls. “Since we didn’t have a lot of entertainment opportunities off-site, we became very close with staff of the neighboring Australian and USSR pavilions. We knew who the KGB officers were, but it didn’t matter. We all got along well. Wilf Wakely wrote skits that we’d put on to entertain the neighbors and I’d play guitar. The Irish Rovers came to perform on Canada Day, and it was great to be up on stage with them.”

CW (Nic) Nicol, destined to become a very notable name in Japan, was Deputy Pavilion Manager, hired because of his maritime experience.

Ten years later, Bronwyn (who is fluent in Japanese) went on to become pavilion manager at Tsukuba ’85, the first woman to hold that post. John Powles was once again her boss.

Tsukuba Expo ’85 and Aichi 2005

By this time, Canada’s Asian Studies programs were producing grads with reasonable Japanese fluency, and people teaching English in Japan were also learning. So Canada’s hosting staff were well-equipped for the mission. What’s more, Wilf Wakely persuaded TBS to locate a TV studio in the pavilion, which gave Canada a much higher profile.

As reported in the Editor’s Message [p.8], Canada Week was a fantastic party featuring A-list talent. Big hit was the amazing k.d. lang, who pavilion manager Bronwyn Best says she ‘discovered’ and recruited in a Halifax bar before she hit the big time. “No one had ever heard of k.d. lang,” Bronwyn said, “but that woman can sing anything and she wowed the crowds. We brought her out on a tractor-pulled hay wagon, dirndl skirt, cut-off cowboy boots and all!”

Tsukuba was also the debut in federal employ for two notable pavilion hosts – both of whom are once again on the federal payroll, Christian Howes and Ian McKay.

Last but not least, Aichi Expo 2005 featured the pavilion-hosting debut of Laurie Peters, now pavilion head at Expo 2025. See the Editor’s Message for more detail on Aichi, but one thing about Canada’s participation should not go unmentioned: it featured a performance by Ottawa’s own Alanis Morissette.

And where did they all end up?

The remarkable cast of characters in Canada’s Japan Expo story have gone on to make lasting contributions to the Canada-Japan relationship and life back home.

David Wallace continued to work on Canada’s Expos right on through Tsukuba and Vancouver. Brian Smith had a long foreign-service career. Adrienne Graham married her Expo ’70 colleague Gordon Gardner and they continue to live happily ever after in Ontario. Helga Stephenson was among the founders of the Toronto Film Festival. Eleanor Westney became a Japan-specialist sociology professor at MIT, York and Yale. Bronwyn Best is an international consultant who lives in Toronto.

John Powles, went on to head all of Canada’s Expo efforts through Expo ’86 and married his colleague, Michelle Brazeau. Sadly, we lost him in 2010.

William Thorsell became editor of The Globe & Mail and later Royal Ontario Museum CEO.

Wilf Wakely, a larger-than-life character, was variously a “TV talento,” lawyer and Chair of the CCCJ (perhaps the most significant ever) before his untimely demise in 2021.

Christian Howes, after a long career in finance, is now based in the embassy as Ontario’s trade and investment representative in Japan, and a CCCJ Governor. His long-time friend…

Ian McKay is now Canada’s ambassador to Japan and coordinator of Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy. This after decades in the financial world in Tokyo and a stint as CEO of the Vancouver Economic Commission.

John McGee, came across a demonstration of Japan’s traditional tea ceremony at Expo ’70 and thought “that’s what I want to do.” In Kyoto, six months after the end of Expo, he knocked unbidden on the gate of the grand-master of the Urasenke School, in effect the pope of tea ceremony, and asked to study with him. “Fine, you start tomorrow,” was the answer. Over the course of 30 years in Kyoto, McGee rose to become the first foreign tea ceremony master and de facto ‘foreign minister’ of the Urasenke School.

CW (Nic) Nicol, ended up as Japan’s guru of forest preservation, sort of a mirror image of David Suzuki, a constant presence on Japanese TV and author of 100 books in Japanese. Born in Wales, he started out as a pro wrestler before going to Canada’s Arctic at age 17 to work on biology research and become a Canadian citizen. He was variously warden of a national park in Ethiopia and long-time pitch man for Nikka Whisky. He died in 2020 at age 79.

Before Expo opened, David Wallace found himself riding around Northern Japan on “Super Bus,” perhaps Canada’s most inspired Expo exhibit. A short-wheelbase Quebec school bus was refashioned as the psychedelic vehicle (this was 1969!) to carry a rock band (ostensibly Chilliwack) all the way to Vancouver where it was loaded on a ship bound for Hokkaido. From there it made its way to Osaka, ‘blowing minds’ (as we’d say in ’69) at every stop. Drop whatever you’re doing and search NFB.ca for “Super Bus,” the super-groovy 6-minute film.