I’ve never liked the taste of pink bubble gum, but I ate it anyway for years during my childhood and early teen years, just so I could blow bubbles and read the comic strips tucked inside.

We used to get free samples from the Dubble Bubble booth in the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE, or the “Ex”) Food Building. I loved the experience so much that I insisted on eating only that type of gum for the rest of the year.

Early 1970’s: Dubble Bubble Booth in the CNE Food Building.
Credit: Old Toronto Series, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1579752435674910/posts/3588833604766773/

Same with chocolate bars. No one could get me to eat anything other than Neilson brands, because they gave me a whole bag full of samples one day a year. My then love for Crispy Crunch, Cinnamon Danish, Jersey Milk and various other sugary treats began at the Ex.

Wikipedia has a good summary of the fair, which still takes place every year.

“The Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), also known as The Exhibition or The Ex, is an annual fair that takes place at Exhibition Place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on the third Friday of August leading up to and including Labour Day, the first Monday in September. With approximately 1.6 million visitors each year, the CNE is Canada’s largest annual community event and one of the top fairs in North America. ¹

We went to the Ex every September long weekend for four or five years in a row in the late 1960s and early 1970s because it was a cheap way for my very young parents to entertain two and then three young children. Most of the day was spent gorging our faces in the food building, but we also got to ride rides in the midway, see horses, milk cows and watch the air show.

I like to think that we also read some of the historical plaques on site. According to Jesse Munroe’s 2021 thesis, there are more than a hundred, but if we did, I don’t remember them. Munroe writes that I’m not missing much, given that they highlight a series of colonial events rather than the original people’s experiences that are most important.

The waterfront was always a gathering place where countless First Peoples came together to trade. Algonquian-speaking Anishnaabe held the lake and its islands in high esteem as a source for both food and spiritual renewal.²

My childhood memories of the food building certainly represented spirtual renewal, but looking back on it, I don’t think they encompassed anything that I now consider food. In those days, various companies offered samples of hotdogs, spaghetti, perogies, pizza, waffles and other meal-like substances, but most of the goodies I remember were candy or dessert.

We stopped going to the food building when my youngest sister was still so young that I’m not sure she even remembers it. Given that I used to leave with a massive bag of sugary substances that would last almost to Halloween, her long-term health is probably better off.

1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_National_Exhibition, accessed April 9, 2025.

2Munroe, Jesse Allan. “Mistakes by the Lake: Making and Unmaking Space at the Canadian National Exhibition.” University of Toronto, 2021. http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=damspub&id=bc2d5a6c-953d-488a-9b0b-7b2d5eb8a1a9, accessed April 9, 2025.