{"id":469417,"date":"2022-06-30T18:18:34","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T15:18:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/inside-the-24-million-miniature-canada\/"},"modified":"2022-06-30T18:18:34","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T15:18:34","slug":"inside-the-24-million-miniature-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/inside-the-24-million-miniature-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"#Inside the $24-million miniature Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2e380465975\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2e380465975\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/inside-the-24-million-miniature-canada\/#%E2%80%9CInside_the_24-million_miniature_Canada%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Inside the $24-million miniature Canada&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CInside_the_24-million_miniature_Canada%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Inside the $24-million miniature Canada&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>In a basement<\/strong> in downtown Toronto, there\u2019s a whole country. The new Little Canada miniature museum depicts Canada\u2019s cities, small towns, mountains and waterfalls, all spectacularly alive with the magic of sound, animation and mechatronics. In one scene, the Maid of the Mist careens up a 16-foot Niagara River aglow with iridescent shades of pink, yellow and blue. In another, tiny skiers make their way down a hyper-realistic Mont-Sainte-Anne that overlooks an elaborate rendering of Old Quebec. It\u2019s a patriotic passion project that took nearly a decade, $24 million from 218 investors, and dozens of artisans to create. And it\u2019s one of the coolest things you\u2019ll ever see.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Little Canada is meant to be educational, but verisimilitude is not its primary goal. The exhibits (which Little Canada calls destinations) are designed to evoke the real thing without being carbon copies; buildings within an area might be shuffled slightly to suit the display, for instance. The whole place is governed by a powerful sense of fun and whimsy, often spilling over into the fantastical. In Petit Quebec, a serpentine sea creature emerges from a construction site. A cross-section of the Ch\u00e2teau Laurier reveals rooms depicting scenes from novels and TV: <i>James and the Giant Peach<\/i>, the <i>Schitt\u2019s Creek<\/i> motel room and the spooky dummies from <i>Goosebumps<\/i>, to name a few.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"longform-fwimg-container\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/220516_Macleans_SHOT5_0226_Michael-Kazimierczuk-3-e1656598120739.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Chateau Frontenac, Quebec City: The hotel was contracted out to a company in Quebec. &#8220;It\u2019s their building, and we didn\u2019t want to potentially take away from any details they consider important,&#8221; says design specialist Ailyah Tom. &#8220;It\u2019s all 3D printed, and it came painted, but we added all the snow and lights. <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">App<\/a>lying the snow was a very long process because we wanted to simulate a natural look. Snow doesn\u2019t just fall straight down; it\u2019s blown around by wind and builds up in crevices or on rooftops. We use mostly spray paint, along with really tiny brushes for the details.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The destinations operate on what the staff call \u201cminiature time,\u201d a 15-minute day-to-night cycle represented with dramatic changes of light. Cars, fire trucks and boats glide on tracks powered by hidden magnets. Every 15 minutes, a Canada Day fireworks<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>show illuminates mini-Parliament. In some scenes, the figurines move: tiny skiers shimmy down a bunny hill at Mont-Sainte-Anne.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s fitting that Little Canada is so whimsical, since the idea for the place came from a powerful hit of childhood nostalgia. One day in early 2011, Jean-Louis Brenninkmeijer, the attraction\u2019s founder, was digging through boxes of his childhood things in the basement of his Oakville home. Brenninkmeijer, who emigrated from Brussels to Oakville in 1999, had recently quit a long career in his family\u2019s business, which took him from retail to renewable energy to finance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">And that family business? It belongs to one of the wealthiest families in Europe. The Brenninkmeijers are a Dutch-German-Swiss dynasty with a considerable legacy and a net worth in the billions. The family\u2019s centuries-old business interests include an international chain of clothing stores, a private-equity company, two banks and a real estate fund. But Jean-Louis wanted to do something different with his time. \u201cI\u2019m not a person who likes to sit behind a computer all day, look at figures and make reports,\u201d he says. \u201cI found it very tedious.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"longform-fwimg-container\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/220516_Macleans_SHOT4_0154_Michael-Kazimierczuk-e1656568999649.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">ByWard Market, Ottawa: Moving vehicles are part of the scene in downtown Ottawa. &#8220;In the past few years, we\u2019ve been able to implement <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> that allows vehicles to move along a particular path using a hidden magnetic rail system,&#8221; says mechatronics specialist Brad Parsons. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>The boxes had been collecting dust<\/strong> for nearly a decade before his wife suggested he finally go through them. \u201cThey were full of my childhood model trains, some of which were passed on to me by my father,\u201d he says. \u201cThe excitement suddenly came back. Every time I opened a box and unwrapped a locomotive or a piece of track, I thought, \u2018Oh, I forgot about this one!\u2019 I remember finding a particular train, a green three-piece locomotive nicknamed the Swiss Crocodile, which I associate with my father. I called him straight away, and he was quite chuckled by the fact that I had just unpacked it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Brenninkmeijer began to explore the idea of building a model train layout at home. He ordered two tables, laid down some track and got to work reigniting a boyhood passion that had long been tucked away, just like his old boxes. In 2011, he visited a museum in Hamburg called Miniature Wonderland, which recreates pockets of Europe in exquisite detail. That visit, coupled with his newly revived model train hobby, sparked a daydream about creating something similar in Canada. \u201cAt first I thought, <i>That\u2019s ridiculous. I don\u2019t have the skills to do something like that,<\/i>\u201d he says. \u201cBut I couldn\u2019t stop thinking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"longform-fwimg-container\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/220516_Macleans_SHOT2_0076_Michael-Kazimierczuk-2-e1656600187703.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Scotiabank Arena, Toronto: The screen on the inside plays footage from 2019 Toronto Raptors NBA title-clinching <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">game<\/a> against the Golden State Warriors. &#8220;You can\u2019t see him in this shot, but Maurice the red Moose, Little Canada\u2019s mascot, is hidden in this destination,&#8221; says design specialist Aliyah Tom. &#8220;We move him around every couple of weeks as a treasure hunt for the kids.&#8221; <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Tentatively, Brenninkmeijer reached out to a few local model train clubs to see if anyone wanted to get on board. Dave MacLean, a civil engineer and president of the Model Railroad Club of Toronto, responded right away. It took one lunch for the two to become partners on the project, and in their early conversations, the idea evolved from a model train exhibit to a miniature world that would depict Canada coast to coast, incorporating trains throughout parts of the build.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>For Brenninkmeijer,<\/strong> the idea came from his love for Canada. He had initially moved to Oakville temporarily for work, but liked it so much he decided to stay. \u201cI fell in love with the country right away,\u201d he says. \u201cFor me, it was the seasons, the friendly people and the diversity of terrain. You have everything: mountains and deserts and lakes and forests.\u201d<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"longform-fwimg-container\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/220516_Macleans_SHOT2_0115_Michael-Kazimierczuk-e1656569659526.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Union Station, Toronto: &#8220;Placing miniature people in front of the Union Station took a couple of days, part of which was spent fixing people as their ankles broke from the process, which happens more often than you\u2019d think,&#8221; says visual arts specialist Damien Webb. &#8220;The cars move, so they are all individually wired; when we placed the vehicles, we had to drill holes into the road to connect the wires to a ribbon cable, which is painstaking work.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In 2013, Brenninkmeijer and MacLean signed the lease on a 5,000-square-foot warehouse space in Mississauga, Ontario. With a team of 10 makers\u2014including hobbyists from the model railroad club\u2014the pair built models of Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe, the first two destinations. They financed it themselves, with investments from friends and family. Between 2014 and 2018, after securing further investments, the team swelled to 30 makers and developed three more destinations: Niagara, Ottawa and Quebec.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Brenninkmeijer and MacLean scouted dozens of locations before finally signing a lease at 10 Dundas, a 45,000-square-foot space smack-dab in downtown Toronto, in August of 2019. The plan was to open the following July with five destinations, plus one under construction, but the pandemic delayed their plans for a year. \u201cOpening day itself was very disappointing,\u201d Brenninkmeijer admits. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have as many visitors as I had hoped. But the next weekend was great, and it grew from there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"longform-fwimg-container\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/220516_Macleans_SHOT1_0009_Michael-Kazimierczuk-e1656599291449.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Niagara-On-The-Lake: &#8220;We worked with Niagara on the Lake\u2019s tourism board to determine which structures we should represent in the neighbourhood, says structure and stories leader Anita Fenton. &#8220;An important one was the Memorial Clock Tower, which was built to memorialize town residents who served in the First World War. It\u2019s made from sheets of styrene, a softer plastic that can be cut by hand.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>In the next three years,<\/strong> Little Canada is set to unveil the East Coast, the Prairies and the North. By 2028, it hopes to open the Rockies, the West Coast and Montreal. The Little North was supposed to be under construction at the time of opening, but it\u2019s been delayed till 2025 in an effort to find the appropriate artisans for the job. \u201cWe want it to be designed and built by an Indigenous team,\u201d says Brenninkmeijer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Today, the team consists of 50 builders, including hobbyist dollhouse makers, visual artists, industrial designers, electrical engineers and mechatronics specialists. A single destination can take anywhere between 40 to 600 work-hours to complete, depending on its size and complexity. Most of the detail\u2014and thus most of the work\u2014goes into what the artisans call the \u201cA-level,\u201d or the highly visible stretch from the edge of a piece to two feet back. In the early days of Little Canada, the makers relied primarily on \u201ckit-bashing\u201d\u2014creatively repurposing and customizing bits and pieces from pre-existing model kits. Now, much of the work is done from scratch with customized 3-D-printed materials and intricately designed electrical work that brings it all to life.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">On most days, you can find Brenninkmeijer wandering the halls of Little Canada, basking in his new life, worlds away from the paper-pushing career he once dreaded. \u201cI\u2019m a people person. I like being on the floor, walking around and talking to guests,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery 15 minutes, there\u2019s a Canada Day celebration in Little Ottawa at the Parliament building. We\u2019ve seen people tear up, clap as a group. Last weekend, we had a group of young kids standing on the railing and singing along to <i>O Canada<\/i>. I had goosebumps.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><em>This article appears in print in the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/canadianmags.ca\/products\/macleans-july-2022\">July 2022<\/a> issue of<\/em>\u00a0Maclean\u2019s\u00a0<em>magazine. Subscribe to the monthly print magazine\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/secure.macleans.ca\/loc\/MME\/head_subscribe\">here<\/a>,\u00a0or buy the issue online\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"c-link\" tabindex=\"-1\" href=\"http:\/\/canadianmags.ca\/products\/copy-of-macleans-single-issue\" data-stringify-link=\"http:\/\/canadianmags.ca\/products\/copy-of-macleans-single-issue\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\" data-remove-tab-index=\"true\">here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/longforms\/inside-the-24-million-miniature-canada\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Inside the $24-million miniature Canada&#8221; In a basement in downtown Toronto, there\u2019s a whole country. The new Little Canada miniature museum depicts Canada\u2019s cities, small towns, mountains and waterfalls, all spectacularly alive with the magic of sound, animation and mechatronics. In one scene, the Maid of the Mist careens up a 16-foot Niagara River aglow&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":469418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/220516_Macleans_SHOT4_0166_Michael-Kazimierczuk-2-e1656568902667-766x431.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[22974,130889,130890],"class_list":["post-469417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-canada","tag-canada-day","tag-miniatures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}