Larger Than Life: 11 Enormously Fun Canadian Roadside Attractions

Road trips are an integral part of Canadian life in the summertime, like complaining about Tim Horton’s or fixing a leak at the cottage. Hitting the highway has been part of vacation plans at this time of year for ages but has seen renewed interest thanks in part to a fresh desire to explore our own nation.

With that in mind, AutoTrader has decided to assemble a list of entertaining (and a little bizarre) outsized roadside attractions found in each province and territory. Did you know Alberta lays claim to the world’s largest golf putter? Or that the planet’s biggest Muskoka chair is in Ontario? Towns and villages across Canada are littered with this type of tremendous miscellanea, and we hope one or two of what follows makes the grade as a waypoint on your Google Maps app this summer.

We’d be remiss not to shout-out the excellent Roadside Attractions website, a page created by Ed Solonyka in 1998 and actively maintained today in his memory. It has a drop-down menu of every province and territory, crowdsourcing this type of stuff and profiling each one with handy GPS coordinates.

Working as the sun rises, we’ll start in the East and work our way to the West Coast. Let’s drive.

Giant Moose: Goobies, Newfoundland

Surprising no one, the visage of a giant moose can be seen roadside at an Irving gas station just about 90 minutes from the capital city in the entertainingly named town of Goobies. Officially named Morris the Moose, he has a 4.9 star rating on Google and has provided source material for countless funny (and probably inappropriate) photos. A similar statue resides several hours away in Deer Lake, also at an Irving station.

World’s Largest Fiddle: Sydney, Nova Scotia

If the appearance of a moose in Newfoundland is predictable, this fiddle in Cape Breton is about as stereotypical as one can get. Standing about 18 metres (60 feet) tall, it was constructed by artist Cyril Hearn in 2005 and resides on the waterfront near a cruise ship pavilion. Pedants take note: this creation is technically the world’s largest illuminated fiddle, a notation that makes sense since Cape Bretoners can party well into the wee hours.

Enormous Potato: O’Leary, Prince Edward Island

Continuing with on-the-nose stereotypes that a person couldn’t make up if they tried, the town of O’Leary on Prince Edward Island is home to a giant potato. Because of course it is. The absolute unit of a spud sits on a plinth outside the province’s potato museum, keeping an eye on tourists and other passersby. These dad jokes will continue until the editors cut me off.

World’s Largest Axe: Nackawic, New Brunswick

Soaring to a height of 15 metres (49 feet), this tribute to the region’s forestry industry is said to weigh over 55 tons. The axe-head itself is 7 metres wide and the stump into which it rests, made out of concrete, is 10 metres (33 feet) across. It was built way back in 1991, helping commemorate the year Nackawic was designated the Forestry Capital of Canada. A manicured park sits nearby, as do the shores of the Saint John River. Paul Bunyon, please pick up the red courtesy telephone.

A Very Large Egg: Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec

We hesitated including a construct marking the head office of a company on Highway 20 instead of something crafted by artists as a statement piece, but the owners of this giant egg actually lean into the roadside trope and have a bit of fun with it. For example, Nutri Group celebrated Easter by decorating the egg with a splash of Spring colour, inspired by artwork drawn by kids of employees, proving that even million-dollar corporations can have a bit of heart.

Big Nickel: Sudbury, Ontario

A person would be hard pressed to find anyone in Ontario who doesn’t know about the Big Nickel in Sudbury. It’s located at the region’s science centre and modelled after a 1951 pressing from the Canadian Mint. This attraction has been around a lot longer than one might expect, with the 9 metre (30 foot) coin atop a 3.6 metre base being finished in 1963.

World’s Largest Painting on an Easel: Altona, Manitoba

This one is a bit forward-looking since the 23 metre (75 foot) tall art installation is currently being rehabbed after enduring 27 years of vicious Prairie weather conditions. Since 1998, the Big Easel in Altona has held a painting of Sunflowers by Van Gogh, referencing the area’s famous sunflower crop. The work was taken down for repair last year. After polling the town and securing an insurance payout plus some donations, a decision was made to repair and replace the giant painting, which should happen this year.

World's Largest Tomahawk: Cut Knife, Saskatchewan

Said to have been created in 1971, this tribute to cooperation between the area’s local cultures was put forward by as an idea by Wilfrid Tootoosis. Measuring some 16.5 metres (54 feet) long, almost 12 metres (40 feet) tall, and weighing some 8 tons, the work is now part of a larger Tomahawk Park that includes a recently constructed cenotaph. The handle is apparently an actual fir tree and the head hewn from fibreglass.

World's Largest Western Boot: Edmonton, Alberta

Hands up if you’re surprised that some sort of cowboy apparel shows up in the province of Alberta. Built back in 1989 when its location was home to the Western Boot Factory, the giant footwear stands four storeys tall (almost 12 metres or 39’4” to be exact), is nearly 3 metres (9 feet) wide at the top, and about 5 metres (16 feet) long at its sole. Over 600 feet of neon tubing illuminates it at night. As a caveat, there is a town in Texas that lays claim to the world’s largest pair of boots, but they’re a piddling 5 feet shorter in height.

World's Largest Cross-Country Skis: 100 Mile House, British Columbia

As a nod to the region’s winter leisure and sport activities, this set of cross-country skis sit outside the South Cariboo visitor centre and measure over 10.5 metres (35 feet) in length while the attendant poles are over 8 m (27 feet long). The skis weigh about 600 pounds each; the poles contribute another 300 pounds of mass between the two. This roadside attraction is so tall that its creators called in BC Hydro and used its experience installing power poles to help raise it into place.

Massive Monuments: Territories

We would be remiss to exclude the accomplishments of artists in our nation’s Territories. As a tribute to early days, the World's Largest Gold Pan can be found in Burwash Landing, Yukon. An incredibly giant inuksuk makes its home in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut. And there is a very large monument to daring bush pilots up in Yellowknife, NWT.