Expo 86

The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, or simply Expo 86, was a world's fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from May 2 until October 13, 1986. The fair, the theme of which was "Transportation and Communication: World in Motion – World in Touch", coincided with Vancouver's centennial and was held on the north shore of False Creek.

It was the second time that Canada held a world's fair, the first being Expo 67 in Montreal (during the Canadian Centennial). It was also the third world's fair to be held in the Pacific Northwest in the previous 24 years as of 1986 and to date, it still stands as the last world's fair to be held in North America.

It was a great success, drawing over 22 million visitors, double that of Knoxville in 1982 and three times that of Louisiana in 1984.

The logo of three interlocking rings to make the 86 in the logo stood for the three main modes of transportation; land, air, and water.

Up until the late 1970s, the 173 acres (70 ha) site on False Creek, where Expo was staged, was a former CPR rail yard and an industrial wasteland. In 1978, Sam Bawlf (then BC Minister of Recreation and Conservation) proposed an exposition to celebrate Vancouver's centennial year (1986). The proposal was submitted in June 1979 for a fair that was to be called "Transpo 86." In 1980, the British Columbia Legislature passed the Transpo 86 Corporation Act, paving the way for the fair. The transportation theme reflected the city's role in connecting Canada by rail, its status as a major port and transportation hub, and the role of transportation in communications.

The initial idea was to have "a modest $80 million transportation exposition that would mark Vancouver's 100th anniversary."^[2] It soon blossomed into a full exposition, thanks to the help of the Vancouver Exposition Commissioner-General at that time, Patrick Reid. The theme of Transportation and Communication led to the conglomeration of many different exhibits of transportation networks. This included a 3.5-mile (5.6 km) monorail line that glided over the crowds included a trip to every zone.^[3] Other ground transports included the SkyTrain, a High Speed Surface Transport from Japan, and a French "People Mover." The transport of the sky was the Gondola, a boxcar hovering high in the air. The water taxis moved along four different ports on the site.^[4]

The fair was awarded to Vancouver by the

The fair was originally budgeted for CAN$78 million. However, final expenditures for the expanded event totalled $802 million, with a deficit of CAN$311 million.[6]

As the city prepared to welcome an influx of visitors, more than a thousand low-income residents of Vancouver's

The fair was known for the unfortunate ill-timing of the themes of both the United States and the Soviet Union pavilions. The U.S. pavilion centred around the country's space program. However, it had been less than four months after NASA had its worst disaster when the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after takeoff. The Soviet Union had an even more problematic theme: it celebrated the country's nuclear industry. But less than a week before the fair opening ceremonies, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred.

• Canadian provinces and territories
• 
   Alberta
• 
   British Columbia
• 
   Quebec
• 
   Yukon
• 
   Northwest Territories

Not pictured: • Nova Scotia • Ontario • Prince Edward Island • Saskatchewan

• Countries and international organizations
• 
   Australia
• 
   Belgium
• 
   Brunei Darussalam
• 
   Canada
• 
   China
• 
   Costa Rica
• 
   Cuba
• 
   Czechoslovakia
• 
  Eastern Caribbean

  Nations
• 
   European Community
• 
   France
• 
   West Germany
• 
   Hong Kong
• 
   Indonesia
• 
   Italy
• 
   Japan
• 
   Mexico
• 
   Norway
• 
   Pakistan
• 
   Peru
• 
   Philippines
• 
   Romania
• 
   Saudi Arabia
• 
   Senegal
• 
   Singapore
• 
  South Pacific
• 
   Sri Lanka
• 
    Switzerland
• 
   Thailand
• 
   United Kingdom
• 
   United Nations
• 
   United States
• 
   U.S.S.R.

Not pictured: • Barbados • Côte d'Ivoire • Hungary • Kenya • South Korea • Malaysia • Spain • Yugoslavia

• Air Canada
• BCTV set up a fully functional broadcast studio on the Expo site. The BCTV pavilion allowed visitors to see, and participate, in every step of how a television station operates, and to see how newscasts and television shows were produced. The pavilion was also used by the station for coverage of the Expo, and by visiting journalists.^{[8][9][10][11]}
• Canadian National
• General Motors - Had one of the more popular exhibits in its pavilion: Spirit Lodge^[12] a live show augmented with holographic effects and other special effects. It was produced by experience designer Bob Rogers and the design team BRC Imagination Arts,^[13] and created with the assistance of the Kwagulth Native reserve in Alert Bay (British Columbia).
• Via Rail
  Exhibit
• CP Air
  was the official air carrier.
• Telecom Canada – Featured a Circle-Vision 360° movie: "Portraits of Canada – Images du Canada"

• Great Hall of Ramses II (Egypt) – containing rare treasures from the life of the pharaoh, Ramesses II.
• Great Norwegian Explorers (Norway)
• Pavilion of Promise (Christian pavilion)
• Roundhouse – a renovated 1880s era railway roundhouse and turntable. Restored historic train Engine 374 was displayed here.
• Expo Centre (later Science World)
• Parade of Steam – a runby of various Steam Locomotives from Canada, the US, and UK. This was part of a 2-week exhibit called "SteamExpo"

• 
  Great Hall of Ramses II
• 
  Great Norwegian Explorers
• 
  The Roundhouse

• Air Plaza
• Land Plaza
• Marine Plaza
• Folklife
• Highway 86 – a sculpture/exhibit consisting of a 217 m (712 ft) 4 lane concrete highway that contained various modes of transportation (cars, mopeds, bikes, etc.) that were frozen in time. All the real vehicles were painted a shade of light grey, and mounted in place. It was designed by 'S.I.T.E. Projects' of New York.
• UFO H2O – a UFO inspired children's water playground.

• 
  Air Plaza
• 
  Marine Plaza
• 
  Highway 86: The Middle of the Road

• Labatt's Expo Theatre
• Kodak Pacific Bowl
• Xerox International Theatre

• Crown Prince Harald and Crown Princess Sonja of Norway; Saudi Arabian Prince Sultan bin Salman Al Saud.^[17]

• Brian Mulroney (Canada); Margaret Thatcher (United Kingdom); Pierre Trudeau (former prime minister of Canada).^[17]

• George Bush (United States).^[17]

Many of the concerts were hosted by Red Robinson,^{[citation needed]} Vancouver DJ. These concerts were held at the Open air Expo Theatre.

The "Festival of Independent Recording Artists", a concert series promoting local bands, was cancelled on the first night after a performance by Slow devolved into a riot.^[18] Other artists who had been scheduled to appear in that series included Art Bergmann.^[18]

• Bill Cosby, Bob Newhart, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Joan Rivers, Howie Mandel, George Burns, Victor Borge and Danny Kaye.^[17]

• Bongsan Talchum
  .

• George Cosmatos (Rambo: First Blood Part II).^[17]

• Jacques Cousteau^[17]

• Pacific Blue Drum & Bugle Corps, Surrey, British Columbia
• Leilehua High School, Wahiawa, Hawaii
• Layton High School Lancer Marching Band
• Alta Loma High School (Chamber Singers), Rancho Cucamonga, CA
• College Park High School Marching Band from Pleasant Hill, CA
• Reynolds High School Concert Band from Portland, OR
• Verona High School Jazz Band from Verona, NJ
• Modesto High School Marching, Modesto CA
• Sapulpa High School Choir (Blue Blazed Marvels), Sapulpa OK
• Concert and Jazz Band from Gustine, CA
• Siuslaw High School Band and Jazz Band, from Florence, Oregon
• Willamette High School Band from Eugene, Oregon at Oregon Pavilion
• South Collegiate Institute Senior Band from London, Ontario
• Central Linn High School Concert Band from Halsey, Oregon
• The Cardinal Regiment (then known by a different name) from Santa Cruz High School, Santa Cruz, CA.^[20]
• Granite Senior Youth Symphony Orchestra from Salt Lake City, Utah

• Official Theme: "Transportation and Communication"
• Sub Theme: "A Celebration of Ingenuity"
• Total Attendance Number: 22,111,578
• Operating Dates: May 2, 1986, to October 13, 1986
• Chief Architect: Bruno Freschi
• Official Mascot: Expo Ernie – A life-sized robot
• Revenues: $491m
• Expenditures : $802m
• Deficit : $311m
• Economic contribution :$3,700m^[21]

(Note: All amounts in Canadian funds, not adjusted for inflation.)

• Main Expo Site Size: 670,000 m³, (165 acres)
• Canadian Pavilion Size: 24,000 m³ (6 acres), 4.5 km (2¾ miles) away from the main site connected by Vancouver's SkyTrain
• Total Expo Site Size: 700,000 m² (173 acres)

54 official participating nations:

 Antigua and Barbuda,  Australia,  Barbados,  Belgium,  Brunei,  Canada,  China,  Cook Islands,  Côte d'Ivoire,  Costa Rica,  Cuba,  Czechoslovakia,  Dominica,  Fiji,  France,  Germany,  Grenada,  Hungary,  Indonesia,  Italy,  Japan,  Kenya,  Malaysia,  Mexico,  Montserrat,  Nauru,  Norway,  Pakistan,  Papua New Guinea,  Peru,  Philippines,  Romania,  Saint Kitts and Nevis,  Saint Lucia,  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines,  Saudi Arabia,  Senegal,  Singapore,  Solomon Islands,  South Korea,  Spain,  Sri Lanka,   Switzerland,  Thailand,  Tonga,  United Kingdom,  United States,  U.S.S.R.  Vanuatu,  Western Samoa, and  Yugoslavia.

In all, 22 million people attended the expo and, despite a deficit of $311 million CAD, it was considered a tremendous success. It remains to date the second biggest event in British Columbia history and is viewed by many as the transition of Vancouver from a provincial city dedicated to extractive industries to a city with global clout.^[22] It marked a strong boost to tourism for the province.

Many^[who?] have also seen the fair as being at least partially responsible for the re-election of the Social Credit party for its final term as a provincial government.

Today, the western half of the site has and is continuing to be developed into parks and high rise

"Expo 86 will be remembered for the warm, friendly spirit that existed among the exhibitors, staff, 8000 volunteers and visitors." according to Kim O'Leary[25]

• advanced rapid transit system. The first line was built intending partially to serve Expo, with construction beginning in the autumn of 1982 and revenue service opening in December 1985. SkyTrain has since become the backbone of the city's metropolitan transit system (metro) and the system has been extended six times, including three minor expansions to the original revenue line Expo Line in 1989, 1990, and 1994. Two additional metro lines, the Millennium Line and the Canada Line, were built in 2001 and 2009, respectively, with the Millennium Line being extended to Coquitlam by the Evergreen Extension
  in 2016. Construction of guideway, station, and train retrofitting of the entire Expo Line are underway as of 2012. Today, SkyTrain transports over 500,000 passengers daily. SkyTrain uses its original 1985–86 Expo fleet of trains (Bombardier/UTDC Mark I) as part of daily revenue service, and newer trains that have additional capacity and more advanced technology (Mark II, Mark III).
• Expo Centre –
  OMNIMAX
  cinema. It opened May 2, 1986, as the Expo Centre. Between 1989 and 1990, after much public support, the building was expanded, and in late 1990, it opened to the general public as a science museum, "Science World".
• Stadium-Chinatown Station
  (then, "Stadium Station") was built for this landmark in 1985, and has since served all major sporting and concert events since 1986. In May 2010, the landmark teflon roof was deflated, and it was replaced with a new retractable roof, as well as overall structural upgrades and a complete interior design makeover. BC Place reopened on September 30, 2011 as the world's largest cable-supported retractable-roof stadium.
• Waterfront Station
  served Canada Place in 1986. A special shuttle train between Waterfront and Stadium Station was used throughout the duration of the fair to get patrons between the Canada Pavilion and main Expo site along False Creek.
• Edgewater Casino
  . Once the offices are demolished it will leave Canada Place, the B.C. Pavilion and the Telus World of Science as the only remaining structures from Expo directly left on the Expo site.

• Monorail – now located at Alton Towers Theme Park in England
• McBarge (officially Friendship 500) – a floating McDonald's. After the fair, it was abandoned in the waters of Burrard Inlet, Burnaby (locally known as "McDerelict"). It could be seen when riding the West Coast Express. It was moved in 2015 for refurbishment to Maple Ridge, British Columbia, where it capsized in 2025.
• Space Ship McDonald's The spaceship motif from the restaurant was dismantled and the wings were removed. The remodelled pieces were then shipped to Sechelt and reconstructed as a lighthouse to go atop the Lighthouse Pub.
• China Gate – donated by the Chinese Government to the City of Vancouver. The landmark was relocated in 1987 to Pender Street in Vancouver's Chinatown.
• Sechelt BC and is now the home to the Lighthouse Pub
  .
• World's largest ice hockey stick – Now being made into collectible memorabilia by a local Vancouver Island company.
• Scream Machine
  Ninja at Six Flags St. Louis
• Barrie, Ontario
• Inukshuk – once used at the Northwest Territories Pavilion, was relocated to English Bay beach in 1988. It was an inspiration for the logo for the 2010 Winter Olympics
  .
• Site Furniture – all sorts of brightly painted remnants were relocated to the Pacific National Exhibition on East Hastings Street, and to other parks and public areas in Greater Vancouver.
• Folklife Pavilion – most of the Folklife Pavilion buildings were dismantled into pieces, shipped by barge and reconstructed as the Folklife Village, the main shopping centre on Gabriola Island, BC
• UFO H2O – the water park is now at Mount Layton Hot Springs Resort in Terrace, British Columbia.
• Dragon boats – the six teak wooden boats used to celebrate Hong Kong (pavilion) Day by holding a
  dragon boat racing festival were raced annually for a number of years before being put into dry dock. In 2015 the original 6, plus 3 more teak and 6 Taiwanese dragon boats, were transferred to Salmon Arm
  , BC and completely restored.
• Expo building modules – Numerous former pavilion structures were disassembled and reconstructed, largely for industrial use throughout the Lower Mainland, and few have survived to 2013. They can be identified by their distinctive peaked corners with exposed tubular girders. They can be found at Tillbury Industrial Park in Delta, British Columbia.
• Russian Pavilion – The Russian Pavilion had a special roof designed with triangles which allowed for maximum floor space coverage without any beams coming down to support it save for the outside of the building. It was dismantled and relocated now housing machinery at the Kruger Products paper plant in New Westminster, British Columbia.
• Bench Seating – iconic painted wire grid bench seating, coloured as the different zone colours of the fair, with formed concrete bases and the "86" logo branded into the sides, can be seen at various locales around the Greater Vancouver area, notably along the White Rock beach promenade.

  

• Log Flume Ride – shipped across Canada on 16 large trucks and installed at Upper Clements Parks in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia.^[26]
• Pier A large steel pier constructed for use during Expo is now in use on the north side of Keats Island as the main dock for Barnabas Landing. For years it was light green and pink (the original colours), but it has been painted a uniform blue.

A group of former Expo 86 employees conducted a 20th anniversary reunion for Expo participants on May 2, 2006, at the Plaza of Nations site.

A group of former BC Pavilion employees celebrated the 20th anniversary of the close of Expo 86 at a reunion^[27] on October 13, 2006, at the former Expo Centre (now Science World).

Celebrating 25 years since its opening of Expo 86, Vancouver is Awesome and Yelp teamed up and threw a party at Science World on May 6, 2011.^[28]

In 1988, the site was sold to the Concord Pacific development corporation for a fraction of the original cost, a move that proved to be extremely controversial. Premier

While opening the world's fair, Diana, Princess of Wales briefly fainted onto her then-husband in a crowded hall in the California Pavilion. She recovered quickly in the washroom and left half an hour later. Prince Charles later said that her fainting spell was a result of heat and exhaustion. However, the Princess confessed several years later that it was actually caused by not having kept down any food for several days, the result of her eating disorder. She was chastised by her husband for not "fainting gracefully behind a door."

On May 9, 1986, 9-year-old Karen Ford of Nanaimo, died at the Canadian Pavilion. She was crushed while on a revolving turntable that connected two semi-circular theatres in the pavilion. The revolving table was shut down for some time after the accident but was put back in service with a number of new safety measures.^[29]

• The Vancouver-based indie band Said the Whale recorded a song called "False Creek Change" about the changes that Expo 86 brought to the area. The song starts: "False Creek changed in 86 / The year Expo exploited her shore / It's been 22 years laying down bricks / There's no room for me here any more."
• Death Cab for Cutie, from nearby Bellingham, Washington, also has a song entitled "Expo '86" on their album Transatlanticism.
• Scenes from Vancouver (some of the Expo) have appeared in a video edition of the song "If I Had Wings", composed in 1986 by children's singer/songwriter Hap Palmer.
• Cheers episode "Money Dearest" featured Cliff Claven discussing his return from Expo 86.
• The band Wolf Parade also released an LP entitled Expo 86 in 2010.
• Archie Comics put out a special edition where they came to Expo 86.^[30]

• 1986 in Canada
• Canadian National Exhibition
• Gaselle
• Transitions

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Expo 86.

• ExpoMuseum page on Expo 86 Archived January 5, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
• Official website of the BIE
• Canadian Heritage site on expos Archived May 15, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
• A 'Look Back' on EXPO 86 – over 140 web pages of images
• 1986 Vancouver (BIE Specialized Expo) – approximately 150 links

Multimedia

• CBC Archives – The food of Expo 86.
• CBC Archives Jim Pattison – a key person behind Expo 86 (from 1985) – and concerns about hosting Expo.