The Best Place to Be—Expo 67 and Its Time

For six months in 1967, from late April until the end of October, Canada and its world’s fair, Expo ’67, became the focus of national and international attention in a way the country and its people had rarely experienced before. At a time when Canada celebrated its centennial, Expo 67 seemed in a lot of ways to crystallize the buoyant mood and newfound sense of confidence many felt that year. Expo was a great world’s fair?some claimed the greatest?in the way it brought together the worlds of art and architecture, film and the performing arts, science and technology, under its theme of Man and His World. For many Canadians around at the time, whether or not they made the trip to Montreal, Expo’s host city, Expo became a touchstone, a popular event that penetrated the collective psyche. The Best Place to Be takes a look at Expo and at the context, social and political, in which it occurred. It is above all a story of people, the planners and administrators who took on the challenge of building and running Expo; the young men and women who worked there; the many visitors, not least the citizens of Montreal who returned again and again to savor the delights of an exhibition that helped to so transform their city.