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QUEBEC CITY: Canadians celebrated the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City, the beginning of four centuries of French culture and language in North America.
Bells rang out across Canada at 11:00 a.m. Quebec time (1500 GMT) on Thursday to mark the exact time that French explorer Samuel de Champlain is thought to have landed on these shores 400 years ago.
With live music, a military parade and a performance by the Cirque de Soleil troupe, Canadians commemorated the day in 1608, marking Canada's beginnings when Champlain crossed the Atlantic Ocean and headed up the Saint Lawrence River to establish the city with 30 other men.
"Four hundred years ago an explorer came this way, and today, a nation salutes him," Quebec premier Jean Charest said at official ceremonies in the shadow of a statue of Champlain overlooking the river.
Rooted in the early days of the fur trade, and once the cradle of French civilization in North America that spanned from Acadia in easternmost Canada to Louisiana in the southern United States, Quebec City is now a bustling Canadian metropolis with a population of 700,000.
Its old quarter, perched atop a cliff that overlooks the point where the Saint Lawrence widens on its way to the open sea, remains the only fortified city north of Mexico and a UNESCO world heritage site.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, flanked by his French counterpart Francois Fillon and two former French prime ministers, heralded Quebec City as "the most beautiful city in Canada."
"The seeds sewn here 400 years ago have flowered into a magnificent city, a confident and proud Quebec nation and a Canada that is strong and free," Harper said.
Party-goers here were to be served a gigantic cake, and treated to an evening open air concert with American rock band Van Halen on the Plains of Abraham, where French colonists lost to British troopers in 1759 in a key battle of the Seven Years' War.
French singer Charles Aznavour was scheduled to perform here on the weekend, followed by ex-Beatle Paul McCartney in the coming weeks and Quebec-born singer Celine Dion in August.
Dockside, France's oldest tall sailing ship, the 112-year-old Belem, welcomed visitors, after retracing Champlain's voyage across the Atlantic.
Nearby, a multimedia film was to be projected on the port city's silos tracing the migrations to Canada.
And a fireworks display said to be the country's largest ever was to light up the night sky.
Pouring rain delayed festivities by a few hours in the afternoon. But Quebec City mayor Regis Labeaume reminded revellers that Champlain was himself drenched in a downpour the morning of his arrival.
On the sidelines, federalists and Quebec separatists continued to bicker over whether to toast Canada's beginnings or French culture in North America.
Pacifists clashed briefly with police over the inclusion of a military parade in the program and the war in Afghanistan, while municipal staff protested their failed contract talks.
And Canada's embassy in Washington apologized for a furore over its party invitations depicting Champlain with a plate of poutine, an oft-disparaged, but delectable Quebec staple of French fries covered with cheese curds and gravy.
Historians note that Quebec City has always been at the centre of frictions between Francophones and Anglophones in Canada.
In 1908, Canada's governor general had wanted to spotlight Canada's British roots at the city's 300th anniversary, according to historian H.V. Nelles.
Fifty years later, then-Quebec premier Maurice Duplessis promoted a nationalist tone to the anniversary celebrations.
A poll published on Thursday highlighted ongoing divisions on the meaning of the celebrations.
But this year, organizers were urged to "compromise" and highlight the festivities "without focusing too much on the dimensions of the celebration."
- AFP/jk
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