The cultural history of what is now Ontario stretches back more than 10,000 years. Many Nations and many peoples have called this place home. MyOntario – A vision over time marks this long history by opening a conversation among Ontarians about our experiences, identities, values and aspirations.
We are asking people from across the province to share their stories – the places, memories, photos, artifacts, artworks and traditions that inspire you, that motivate you and help define who you are. Be the province's storytellers, record keepers, historians and visionaries!
Let's build a deeper understanding, showcase our diversity and create a lasting record that reflects the breadth, depth and complexity of our great province as we look to the future.
Jeanette Elliott, Collections Co-ordinator, Fanshawe Pioneer Village
This Farm Service Corps uniform is part of the permanent collection at Fanshawe Pioneer Village, and serves to remind us that men were not the only participants in World War One. While women were restricted from participating in direct combatant roles, they organized and outfitted themselves for hom
Alphonse Tourville
Raised and bred, Ontario, Cree Nation Attawapiskat, Survivor Residential School, travelled Canada, live in N.L. new home for 30 years, but nothing stops the yearning for many visits.
#MyOntario
What's your Canadian Thanksgiving tradition?
From fall recipes to family traditions – tell us how you celebrate Thanksgiving!
Join the conversation on social media: Explore #MyOntario posts about Thanksgiving and connect with us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Melanie Pledger (2015 recipient of the Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Youth Achievement)
Learning from the past
I’m proud to be a Canadian. I’m also proud to be an Ontarian. Going one step further, I’m proud to be a Falcon.
In 2014, I graduated from one of the oldest high schools in Canada – the Owen Sound Collegiate and Vocational Institute (OSCVI). It was founded in 1856, making i
Litsa Tsouluhas
I love Toronto because it celebrates diversity. This is unique, not only to Canada but to the world.
Ontario means the Great Lakes.
Ontario is making an effort to redress a colonizing past.
- Litsa Tsouluhas - National Aboriginal Day at Fort York National Historic Site - June 22, 2017
Desiree Laporte
Acceptance of EVERYONE.
- Desiree Laporte, Canuck It Up Festival Amherstburg, downtown Amherstburg, August 6, 2017
David Rayside (Professor Emeritus of Political Science and founding Director of the Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies, University of Toronto)
Making history
At 6 p.m. on December 2, 1986, Ontario’s legislative assembly was scheduled to vote on adding “sexual orientation” to the province’s Human Rights Code. Ten minutes away, at University College, I ended a late-afternoon class and ran over to the public gallery.
The vote was the only
Olivia Wallace
Emancipation Day. FREE AT LAST!
- Olivia Wallace, Emancipation Day celebration at Uncle Tom’s Cabin Historic Site, Dresden, August 5, 2017
Stephen Otto
I feel a sense of belonging when I walk down the Main Street of almost any Ontario town or small city where many of the buildings date from the late 19th or early 20th century. This sense comes partly from efforts by the Ontario Heritage Foundation [now the Ontario Heritage Trust] and Ministry of Cu
Paul Dempsey
Last summer my daughter moved out of the province and we loaded up her car and began the journey through Northern Ontario. I have lived all my life in Ontario and it has always been my home. Growing up in Southern Ontario my family took many camping and cottage trips throughout the province visiting
Aleksander Sielicki
PAINTINGS ON CANVASTONE
We are sailing on the ferry to Pelee Island. The mist from the water sets on my face. I look to the horizon, which soon disappears. I look deeper and deeper. The mysterious beauty of eternity. The afterimage of the sun when I closed my eyes. The sun is still in a shapeless cl
Laura Wickett
Industrial heritage in Jordan Harbour
To find your way to one of Niagara’s hidden gems, you first need to know which dead-end street in Jordan Station to park on, and then take an overgrown pathway through the bushes to a steel train trestle bridge. Follow it out over the mouth of Jordan Harbour,
Muhammad Qureshi (2014 recipient of a Lieutenant Governor's Ontario Heritage Award for Youth Achievement)
Our natural fingerprint
The magic began on a cold autumn afternoon after a hockey game with friends. I was walking home through a trail and the leaves had turned bright yellow and deep red, and I came across a painted turtle scurrying to find its way back to a pond. A whole hour vanished as I expl
Shruthi Dhananjaya
Being raised in Toronto, I have fond memories of the city’s harbourfront. Throughout the years, I would visit the harbourfront each summer with my family and it is a tradition which I still continue. I find it to be a calming oasis right in the heart of the city centre. I enjoy walking on the boardw
Excerpt taken from an interview with Louis Lesage, PhD (biologist and Director of the Bureau Nionwentsïo, at Notre-Dame-de-Lorette Church at Wendake, Quebec)
Why is it important to preserve the Wendat language?
Culture has many aspects. One aspect is the language. When you lose your language, you lose a part of your culture. The language helps you to describe your environment, to clearly express what you think, to make some colour in your way of life
Cameron Ylimaki
Pride & Happiness.
- Cameron Ylimaki, Bay and Algoma Buskers Festival, Thunder Bay, July 29, 2017
#MyOntario
Share your trillium sightings
Trilliums, Ontario's official flower since 1937, bloom in mid-May. In addition to the white (grandiflorum) variety, trillium varieties also include red (erectum) and yellow (lutem). This photo of a red trillium was taken at the Fleetwood Creek Natural Area.
Did yo
Steven Beckly (artist and former Doris McCarthy Artist-in-Residence program resident)
Steven Beckly is a visual artist specializing in photography.
R. Dennis Moore (Archivist, Multicultural History Society of Ontario)
This badge belonged to Bohdan Panchuk, one of the most influential Canadians involved in the effort to resettle thousands of Ukrainians who were displaced by the Second World War.
By the end of the conflict, countless refugees had been forcibly displaced from their homes and faced uncertain future
Eleanor McMahon (Ontario’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport)
A Place to Stand
As Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, I’ve had the privilege to meet many proud, talented and hardworking Ontarians through my participation in a number of special events and occasions. One highlight came a few months ago.
It was a perfect late-summer day in our nation’s ca
Cades McKenna
Rainbow Falls, lakes, forests, swimming, roller blading, hiking.
- Cades McKenna, Bay and Algoma Buskers Festival, Thunder Bay, July 30, 2017
Jeremy Collins
A santuary for all seasons
When I think of My Ontario, my thoughts sometimes turn to those cold Canadian winter days in late January and early February when snow and ice prevail and the hope of spring is just a distant dream and yet I know that a sanctuary for the senses is not too far away. This
The Honourable David Onley (28th Lieutenant Governor of Ontario)
Thoughts about Ontario at 150
The photo became an heirloom in our family: a picture of Her Majesty the Queen at Kew Gardens in The Beach, escorted by Toronto Maple Leafs owner Conn Smythe on a blistering hot June 1959 day, viewing dozens of kids in wheelchairs. The large banner framing the area pr
Nathan Tidridge
Local residents in #Waterdown holding their spots for the annual #Flamborough Santa Claus Parade later that day. #MyOntario