When she walked through the gates of Canada’s Wonderland on opening day, 18-year-old Heather Hill would never have guessed that one day, she’d be running the place. “Not in my wildest dreams!” Hill says.
It was 1981 and Grade 13 had just ended, so she got a job as a rides hostess. Over the next 45 years, she held many roles that eventually led to her ruling over the entire domain, securing the gig of vice-president and park manager. Now, after four-and-a-half decades at the park, Hill has retired.
Hill’s last day in the office was May 12, but she returned to the park one last time in an official capacity the following week to meet with the Star. Hill settled into the booth at one of the park’s event spaces. The park had only been open for a few weeks, but clusters of adrenaline-fuelled children still ran screaming through the grounds to line up for their favourite rides. Hill took out her Canada’s Wonderland name-tag and carefully affixed it to her jacket. Leaned against the booth was the one tool Hill never went without: a garbage grabber. Even as the head of the park, she still carried it with her at all times, picking up trash wherever she roamed.
Opening day at Canada’s Wonderland
Back in ’81, Hill worked in the rides department because, at 18, she could legally operate the machinery. It was manning the Africa-inspired Zumba Flume at the World’s Fair-themed Grande Exposition — and forming a tight-knit crew with her coworkers — where she really fell in love with the place. “I was a really shy person in high school and getting the job here and getting connected with all these people was life-changing for me,” she says. She met the best friend who would become her maid of honour, followed by a parade of Canada’s Wonderland pals past and present.
She quickly rose to supervisor, then area supervisor, before securing a post managing her true love: ride operations. After that, she opened the water park. Eventually she presided over not just rides and aquatics, but park services and entertainment, before finally ascending to park manager. Even the drier aspects of the job were thrilling for Hill; she was, for example, especially passionate about line management, delighting in creating faster queues for all the new ride installations during her tenure.
Even after working at the park for decades, watching people enjoy these rides never got old. Hill has a real fondness for Leviathan, the park’s signature teal behemoth. “It is just pure fun from the minute you get on; it’s smooth, it’s fast,” she says. “Even seeing kids’ reactions over on the smaller rides — like if it’s the first roller coaster they’ve been on, Taxi Jam — and seeing them go on again and again.” When Hill learns of the swarm of kids who were sprinting to the rides that day despite the wind chill, she pauses, choking up a little. “Well, they run to line up for AlpenFury…oh my gosh, I can’t believe I’m getting all emotional,” she says. “That’s pretty special.”
Over the years, she also loved getting to know the die-hard fans who returned to the park multiple times a season, many of them by name. She remembers one little non-verbal girl who fell in love with the characters, coming back to the park again and again to interact with her favourites, including Linus. Hill organized a birthday party for her, complete with a Linus cameo. “The mom came and told us afterwards that she really believed that, because of these character encounters, her daughter started talking,” Hill says. “And she was overwhelmed with gratitude because she really didn’t think that that was ever going to happen. So that was pretty magical.”
“I had the pleasure of waking up every day and wanting to go to work,” Hill says. “I can’t imagine having a job, and some people do, that they have to do it to pay the bills or it’s very toxic or they just aren’t happy. I’ve never been like that.”
When it was time for the Star photo shoot, Hill snapped into action, suggesting a portrait at her favourite place in the park, the Rainbow Bridge, near the brace of crabapple trees in full bloom. She swung herself out of the booth and picked up the grabber. Then paused. She’d spotted something. In one swift movement, she’d snatched the tiny piece of white paper off the ground.
As a retiree, Hill gets a lifetime pass to the park — and she already has the perfect outing planned out for her return as a civilian. Earlier that day, waiting outside the event space in the sunshine, she pondered what it would be like: “I’d be able to sit back and enjoy the ambiance, without having to rush off to the next thing.” She’d come first thing in the morning, before the crowds arrived, just to enjoy the landscaping and the flowers. She’d stop at the water park she opened, do a lap. “Then probably a beverage or two sitting on a patio, just enjoying things,” Hill says. And, of course, she would make a stop at Leviathan. And how many times would she ride the magnificent blue beast? One time? Multiple times? “Oh my gosh, no,” Hill says. “Countless times.”
