Is the Ex still worth going to?

The Canadian National Exhibition has run since 1879 and closes the summer for a very large number of families in this region. This year’s ran from August 21 to Labour Day, September 7. It is also, once you have parked, paid the gate and bought four things on the midway, a genuinely expensive day out: general admission was $26.55 plus tax in advance and about $30 at the gate, before a single ride, with $13 evenings and a Toonie Monday for kids as the ways round it.

The argument is not really about whether the Ex is good. It is about what it is for now. It was a working agricultural and industrial fair. What survives of that is the food building, the air show, the animals and a midway that is much the same as any other midway.

Every year somebody points out that the CNE is one of the few remaining events where the entire region turns up in the same place at the same time. And every year somebody else points out that this is also true of the 401.

Sources: The Ex, tickets · NOW Toronto, the 2026 guide