Meet the Board: Chris Houston, Canadian Peace Museum

Chris Houston’s humanitarian work has taken him around the world, from responding to the tsunami in Sri Lanka to supporting healthcare in Lebanon and Yemen. After living and working across continents, the Scottish-born humanitarian chose Ontario’s Highlands as his location of choice to put down some roots.

For someone who has worked in places affected by war, the tranquility of Ontario’s Highlands holds particular meaning. Through the Canadian Peace Museum, Chris is bringing that global perspective to the region, creating a place where visitors and neighbours can discover stories, explore connections and learn together.

Chris first came to Canada for work in 2010 and lived in Toronto before spending time in Bancroft in 2017. He bought a home there in 2020 and has lived in town full time ever since. By then, his humanitarian work had ranged from managing refugee health programs and pediatric hospitals to overseeing logistics for the World Health Organization. Working with organizations such as the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders gave him a firsthand view of what it takes to keep healthcare available through a crisis.

“Having seen war, it makes you really like peace,” said Chris.

Chris had been advocating for peace and human rights for years and understood that while a newspaper article or a banner could get people’s attention, a place where people could spend time with complicated questions and answers about peace would be invaluable. When people visit a museum, they come expecting to learn and are often ready to give an unfamiliar story a chance.

“We all like peace, but how you get there is quite a long and complicated story that can be challenging to communicate,” he said.
The Canadian Peace Museum was founded in 2023 but it took three years to secure funding, and bring the museum to life by acquiring a building, renovating it and gathering items for the collection. 

For Chris, some of the most rewarding moments come when people who already know Bancroft discover something about its history they’ve never heard before. Sharing those stories and helping people see how they connect is one of the things he’s come to enjoy most about working in tourism.

The museum is Chris’s first tourism venture and he sees giving visitors another reason to spend time in Bancroft as a way to support the community he chose to make home.

That local commitment helped draw Chris to the Ontario’s Highlands Tourism Organization (OHTO) Board of Directors. His ties to Europe give him a perspective on what travellers from farther afield might be looking for, and his experience working across cultures and with governments gives him another way to contribute. 

Chris is eager to learn from fellow directors who have spent years leading tourism organizations and business. He explained the board held a meeting at the museum which gave him a chance to get to know his fellow board members while also giving them a chance to get to know the space. Since that meeting, two directors have initiated conversations about how organizations they’re involved with could work with the museum.

For anyone considering applying to the board, Chris’s advice is to think about what their own experience could add to the conversation. He values the knowledge that comes from years in tourism and says a healthy board also needs people who will look at a question from a different angle. 
His own route to the board has taken him through humanitarian work, journalism and nonprofit governance. Now, his fellow directors can share what they know about tourism while he brings his experience in diplomacy and working across cultures to the table.

“The good boards in my experience have a lot of very different people,” said Chris.

Interested in joining OHTO’s Board of Directors?

Visit the OHTO website to learn more about the board and how to get involved. Think about what you’ve learned in your line of work and how that experience might help shape the future of tourism in the region.