The Ontario Regiment has a long and proud history of service to our country extending back to the years before confederation. That service is the story that we invite you to help us tell to a new, and some not so new, generation of Canadians.

A museum like ours must be more than just a place to store curiosities from former times. Many members and visitors alike are amazed at the number and variety of artefacts that we have, but what you can see in these display cases is only about one quarter of the items that we are responsible for preserving. We currently have in our charge over 4,000 non-vehicle items with a total value in excess of $1,500,000.

These valuable items can’t speak for themselves. It is our job to tell their story. This started shortly after the Second World War when a group of Ontario Regiment veterans established a collection of artefacts housed in space in the attic over the Sergeants Mess at the Oshawa Armoury. Some of the early volunteers were George Fox, Jack Sherriff, and Steve Wotton.  While being a great start, this space was not easily accessible to the general public. In the 1970’s, some of the collection was moved to a new location occupying two rooms on the second floor of Parkwood, the home of the late Col. R.S. McLaughlin under the curatorship of LCol (Ret’d) Steve Wotton which allowed for greater community access. As the collection continued to grow, a larger space was required and in the early 1990’s the museum joined with the Ferret Club and moved into the present location in the south field of the Oshawa Municipal Airport.

With aging artefacts and a growing collection, it became apparent that the space that had served so well for over twenty years needed a major overhaul. During the winter of 2013/14 the interior of the museum was completely demolished and rebuilt into the museum space you see today incorporating many of the latest advancements in the science of museology.

It is important to note that our museum is an accredited Canadian Armed Forces Museum established under the authority of the Directorate of History and Heritage department 5 (DHH-5) and also members of the Organization of Military Museums of Canada (OMMC).  Your volunteer service here at our museum means that you are also members of a nation-wide community of professionals and volunteers dedicated to the preservation of Canada’s amazing and proud military history.

The vehicle section of the museum traces its history back to 1979, when the Honorary Colonel Norman Wilton purchased nine Ferret Scout Cars from the Canadian Army. This became the Ontario Regiment Ceremonial Troop, also known as the Ferret Club. The Ferret Club occupied a number of buildings over time, from gas stations to barns. In 1996, the City of Oshawa offered a number of unused buildings at the Oshawa airport to the Club, which allowed the consolidation of Ontario Regiment historical artifacts on site. Artifacts stored at the Armoury and Parkwood were displayed at the front office space of the main building, and this became known as the Static Display Area. The remainder of the Main Building became The Display Bay, The Workshop, The Restoration Shop (sometimes called the Paint Bay) and the Machine Shop. The Museum lease also included the Cox Building (a Quonset Hut West of the Main Building) and the Tank Hangar (a wooden building original to the Airfield, which was used by the Ontario Regiment for vehicle storage since 1945 up until the 1980s).

From the time of its founding, the Ferret Club started acquiring other military vehicles. Some from people that had an old military vehicle at their farm. Others recovered from army gunnery ranges. Many of these vehicles were rebuilt and refurbished. Some Canadian Army vehicles were loaned to the Regimental Museum, including a number of surplus gate guards (vehicles used as monuments in front of Military installations). A number of which were rebuilt into operational vehicles by the members.

In 2017 the Ferret Club and the Regimental Museum were amalgamated into The Ontario Regiment (RCAC) Museum. In 2018 the MVCC (Military Vehicle Conservation Center) was opened, adding 1,560 square metre (17,000 square foot) enclosed display and work space for the growing collection of vehicles.

In January of 2020, the first cases of COVID were confirmed in Canada.  By March of that year, the Museum had pretty well stopped all public events and access although COVID rules still allowed small teams to do some work and the Museum did move to weekly O-Groups conducted over Zoom.  During COVID, the Museum did run two very successful “Tank Trek” events where the public could drive through a course surrounded by parked Museum vehicles while listening to recorded descriptions.  The Museum did not fully recover until September of 2021.  Masks and physical distancing were still in effect until March 2022.

In 2023, the City of Oshawa and the Museum reached an agreement to designate the entire South Field as a Historical District to be managed by the Museum.  As part of this agreement, the exterior of the WW2 Airman’s Canteen was renovated by the City of Oshawa and turned over to the Museum.  The Museum will complete renovations of the interior installing everything to make the building useable year-round. 

The Museum was also granted the ability to build a new Museum building just south of the Airport.

Your Museum continues to grow. We are acquiring more vehicles and more artefacts. The number of Guest Visits continues to grow year-over-year at an unprecedented rate. We have aggressive plans for a new world class museum building.

In June of 2024, The Museum announced to the world that it was rebranding as the Canadian Tank Museum (Home of the Ontario Regiment Museum).  It used this event as the kickoff to its capital campaign to build a new Museum building.  Supporting this initiative, is a new Museum Development Officer.

We are also expanding our network of friends. As an organization, we are supported by both the Canadian Army and World of Tanks. We have partnered with a brewery, so we have our own beer. We have great relationships with local businesses, the City of Oshawa, and the Region of Durham.

We are a world class museum. Unique among the great military museums of the world in that we have a very high percentage of operating vehicles and we do so primarily with volunteer support. Also, we run our vehicles for public display more than any other museum.