page_title: Canada's Wonderland
section_title: Cedar Fair era
hierarchical_section_title: Canada's Wonderland / Park history / Cedar Fair era
caption_attribution_description: English: The main entrance of Canada&#39;s Wonderland in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada, featuring Canadian provincial flags. Nederlands: Hoofdingang van Canada's Wonderland met de Canadese provinciale vlaggen, gefotografeerd in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada.
context_page_description: Canada's Wonderland is a 134-hectare theme park located in Vaughan, Ontario, a suburb approximately 25 kilometres north of Downtown Toronto. Opened in 1981 by the Taft Broadcasting Company and The Great-West Life Assurance Company as the first major theme park in Canada, it remains the country's largest. The park, currently owned by Cedar Fair, has been the most visited seasonal amusement park in North America for several consecutive years. As a seasonal park, Canada's Wonderland is open daily from May to Labour Day, with weekend openings in late April and after Labour Day until end of October or early November due to the transition between Halloween Haunt. Halloween Haunt is open until October 31 at midnight. With seventeen roller coasters, Canada's Wonderland is ranked second in the world by number of roller coasters, after Six Flags Magic Mountain, and tied with Cedar Point. The 134-hectare park includes an 8-hectare water park named Splash Works. The park holds Halloween Haunt, a Halloween-themed event, each fall, as well as special events throughout the season, including various food festivals, as well as "Celebration Canada", a month-long Canada Day festival, among others.
context_section_description: On 14 May 2006, Cedar Fair Entertainment Company announced it was interested in acquiring the five Paramount theme parks from CBS Corporation (successor of the original Viacom), including Canada's Wonderland. CBS stated that amusement parks did not fit the company's new strategy. The acquisition was completed on 30 June 2006.
  After the sale, Cedar Fair began to drop the name "Paramount" from all of the former Paramount properties it acquired, as a result, the park has reverted to its original name of Canada's Wonderland in January 2007. The 2007 season was a transition year throughout the park and included renaming the movie-themed rides since Cedar Fair did not hold the rights to Paramount film properties. By the start of the 2008 season, all Paramount logos and similar references had been removed. In August 2007, Cedar Fair announced that Fearfest would become Halloween Haunt to remain consistent with most other Cedar Fair parks, and that Spooktacular would become Camp Spooky. The park extended its regular operating season until the last weekend in October. Halloween Haunt runs in the late evenings on October weekends.
  On May 4, 2008, Canada's Wonderland opened a Bolliger & Mabillard hypercoaster called Behemoth, which held the record for the tallest and fastest roller coaster in Canada at the time of its opening, standing at 70 metres (230 ft) and reaching speeds of 124 kilometres per hour (77 mph).
  On July 19, 2009, stunt performer Nik Wallenda walked on a tight rope from the pond area of Medieval Faire to Wonder Mountain.
  In 2011, Canada's Wonderland opened a 91.8-metre-tall (301 ft) WindSeeker, making it the tallest ride in the park until Leviathan opened in 2012. The park also announced the addition of the Starlight Spectacular show, which started on 25 June 2011 and ended on Labour Day, 3 September 2011. It was a nightly 'light and sound show' designed to celebrate the park's 30th anniversary; it was shown at 10 pm EST every night on International Street. Canada's Wonderland stated that the total cost for the show was approximately $1 million, with 16 million different colours and 300,000 LED lights. While the show took place at the front of the park (International Street), the highlight was on Wonder Mountain, with many 3D images and colours.
  In 2012, Leviathan, a Bolliger & Mabillard Hypercoaster (also classified as a giga coaster), opened, surpassing the Canadian records set by Behemoth in 2008, becoming the tallest and fastest roller coaster in Canada. Norm Pirtovshek, general manager of Canada's Wonderland, said that the Leviathan as a new attraction would help to spread out visitors. It was also described as part of a "roller coaster renaissance" where theme parks distinguished itself by introducing bigger and faster rides to attract guests. In addition to Leviathan, Canada's Wonderland also opened the Dinosaurs Alive! walk-through dinosaur exhibit.
  On 27 May 2012, for the first time in the park's history, Canada's Wonderland hosted a one-kilometre, 5-kilometre, and 10-kilometre run to raise money for the planned Cortellucci Vaughan Hospital (then known as Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital) that will be built on land once owned by Canada's Wonderland north of Major Mackenzie Drive.
  On 30 August 2013, Canada's Wonderland announced that Wonder Mountain's Guardian would open inside Wonder Mountain in May 2014. The attraction is a 4-D interactive dark ride/ roller coaster with animations from Montreal-based Triotech. Park management also announced that SkyRider would close Labour Day, 2014.
  In October 2014, a man was fatally stabbed at Halloween Haunt. SkyRider was removed at the end of the 2014 season and relocated to Cavallino Matto in Tuscany, Italy, as Freestyle in 2015.
  Near the close of the 2015 season, Canada's Wonderland announced that two new flat rides would be added in 2016: Skyhawk (a Gerstlauer Sky Roller) and Flying Eagles (a Larson International Flying Scooters). Cedar Fair CEO Matt Ouimett also confirmed in December 2015 that virtual reality (VR) headsets would be added to Thunder Run in 2016. Availabl
caption: Entrance to the park featuring its original name. The park reverted to its original name in 2007, after it was acquired by Cedar Fair.
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