What's on for Canada Day 2026 in Thunder Bay

What's on for Canada Day 2026 in Thunder Bay

City of Thunder Bay, Fort William Historical Park hosting events

Thunder Bay, Ont., has several free and family-friendly events open to the public for Canada Day on Wednesday, July 1.

Talia Strickland, the City of Thunder Bay’s special events developer, said the city’s theme for Canada Day is ‘walk together, experience together, celebrate together.’

“It means we would like to see the community come together and learn from each other and find opportunities to work together and learn about everyone’s different backgrounds and what Canada Day means for them, whatever that be,” Strickland said.

The city's Canada Day on the Waterfront event will run from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Marina Park.

“We will have the full park programmed from the festival area all the way to the Spirit Garden,” Strickland said.

She explained that the day will start with a Sunrise Ceremony at 5:45 a.m. in the Spirit Garden.

A Sacred Fire will continue until roughly 12 p.m.

Later in the afternoon, residents will have the chance to visit pop-ups from food vendors, community groups and artisans, participate in indoor and outdoor activities and watch live performances, including the Toronto-based crossover group and headliner, The Band Destiny.

A Special Exhibit, “Bi-Giwen: Coming Home – Truth Telling from Sixties Scoop Exhibit,” will also run at the Baggage Building Arts Centre, detailing first-person oral testimonies of 12 Indigenous survivors of the Sixties Scoop.

Multimedia exhibit in Thunder Bay, Ont., honours Indigenous Sixties Scoop survivors

The city is running a shuttle service from the Canada Games Complex to the waterfront event starting at 2:30 p.m.

While there will not be fireworks at Canada Day on the Waterfront, Strickland said the city will have an “exciting” Drone Light Show happening at its Live on the Waterfront – Summer Send-Off at the end of the summer.

The two-night festival — which celebrates music, community and innovation — will take place at the Marina Park Festival Area on Aug. 27 and it will mark the city’s second year of doing the Drone Light Show.

“We received really positive feedback from the public and we did a partnership with the Thunder Bay [International Airports Authority] for that and we really enjoyed working together and it’s really cool to see that happening right in your sky on the waterfront,” Strickland said.

Canada Day at Fort William Historical Park

Fort William Historical Park will also host its own Canada Day celebration from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m on July 1.

It will feature a morning cannon salute at 10:30 a.m., followed by guided tours, several educational games and activities, artisan demonstrations, flag crafting and the chance to join members from Red Sky Métis Independent Nation to make a wooden maple leaf craft.

Visitors can also stop by food and beverage vendors, community information booths and meet Jelly, the park’s purebred Canadienne cow — one of roughly 400 purebred Canadienne cattle worldwide derived from a French breed that arrived in New France in the 1600s.

The park will also have live entertainment during the event.

More information, including the full entertainment schedules, is available on the city and the park’s websites.

Nicky Shaw is a reporter for CBC Thunder Bay. She graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism and a minor in Environmental and Climate Humanities from Carleton University. Aligning with her passion for covering global environmental and humanitarian issues, she has worked to develop in-depth multimedia content that shares the diverse experiences of people in Northwestern Ontario.