HAMILTON, Ont. — The Workers Arts and Heritage Centre (WAHC) is pleased to invite you to celebrate the launch of a new virtual exhibit to be hosted on the Virtual Museum of Canada Web site.

A cocktail reception and presentation of this new exhibit will be held at the Workers Arts & Heritage Centre located in the historical Custom House on Feb. 19, 2004 from 5:30 to 7pm.

Canada’s main highway networks handle over 600,000 truck trips per week and at present, trucks move 90 per cent of all consumer goods and generate almost $40 billion per year in revenues.

How much do we know about the life of a truck driver? Who are these people behind the wheel? How do they cope with the solitude and endless days of driving? What skills and special talents are required to be a trucker? What is it like to call a truck your home, and even share it with a partner as many couples do? The WAHC is presenting the fascinating history and culture of truckers in "Highway Workplace: The Canadian Truckers Story" to explore these questions.

This exhibition is designed to inform visitors about truckers’ history and culture. It will engage visitors directly through a number of interactive components, using oral history, imagery, sound, text, artefacts, The virtual museum will offer an accessible, intimate look at the daily life of the Canadian trucker and the history of the Canadian trucking industry – one of Canada’s largest and most important industries.

Through this virtual exhibit the story of the highway workplace and its vitally important group of workers will become better known. Visitors will be given an opportunity to understand their historical relationship to this industry, and also to share related experiences through interactive components on the site. It will promote public discussion of issues related to the trucking industry and the workers who rely on it for their livelihood.