Canadian War Museum

Being a local in Ottawa can allow you to get into all the national museums for cheap if you're selective about when you go. Each major museum has a unique day of the week where the admission fees are super cheap, so it's a good excuse to get outside in the evenings.

On Sunday we went to check out the brand-spanking new Canadian War Museum. It's an architecturally magnificent building, and from what I could see of the future plans, is intended to take on a super-size bunker look, with a park on the roof. The crowds for the museum were pretty intense at the beginning, so we decided to do the museum in reverse, and essentially go backwards in time. This meant that we started in the gallery of recent conflicts, the cold war and peacekeeping.

One of the displays showed a control headquarters, possibly like NORAD, which is running a continuous visual simulation on the sequences of WWIII. I couldn't make out who was against who, but it was dark nonetheless. Another section of the gallery was dedicated to the history, and the current dynamics, of nuclear warfare. I found myself mentally drained after that exhibit, not finding much hope for humanity. On a lighter note, the LeBreton Gallery was essentially a huge hanger full of all the military tanks, motorcycles, jeeps, and artillery used in historical battles. Many of the tanks were crude, simple, and rugged in their design, yet housed some rather complicated mechanics inside. Can you imagine what it would have been like for one of these things to break down in the field, and essentially have a bunch of 18 year olds trying to figure it out? Talk about stress.

There was also a temporary show running called "Propaganda". It highlighted the mediums of communication between the government and the citizens throughout WWI and WWII. The methods of swaying public opinion came mostly through clever artwork on posters, but there were also board games, bone china sets decorated with military regalia, and ash trays where you could butt your cigarette out in "Hitler's Hearth" (it contained a piece of marble from his actual fireplace) Definitely kitsh, but the enemy was well known, and I guess it served to unite the homefront.

The one problem I'm finding with these museums (and it's not a bad thing), is that there is no fathomable way to cover them in one visit. We didn't even get halfway through the war museum in close to 4 hours. Good thing we can easily go back for round two.