QUEBEC CITY: Quebec City celebrated on Thursday its founding on July 3, 1608, and also 400 years of French-speaking peoples in North America. A day of speeches and concerts are scheduled in this eastern Canadian city and provincial capital, but the party itself will keep going through October with performances by Celine Dion and Paul McCartney.

Celebrations started with a salute to Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer who in the spring of 1608 crossed the North Atlantic Ocean and headed up the Saint Lawrence River to establish the city with 30 other men.

Several guests, including Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his French counterpart Francois Fillon, attended the ceremonies.

Former French prime ministers Alain Juppe and Jean-Pierre Raffarin, as well as former presidential candidate Segolene Royal also made a trip over. Royal currently governs a region of France, Poitou-Charentes, where Champlain was born.

“Proving that French culture and language has survived here for four centuries, I find that remarkable,” Royal said, noting a fraternity between Quebec and France that was echoed in a speech by Alain Juppe, the mayor of Bordeaux on Friday during a ceremony welcoming to Quebec the Belem, France’s oldest tall sailing ship.

Around 11am (1500 GMT) on Thursday the supposed hour of Champlain’s arrival on these shores, bells chimed throughout Canada.

That would be followed by a commemoration and concert with singers Robert Charlebois and Diane Dufresne.

Later, official festivities are expected to wrap up with a massive fireworks display set to music, said to be the largest ever pyrotechnics show in Canada.

Protests, however, also threaten the fun, with municipal unions in the midst of contract negotiations threatening to seek attention to their plight, and pacifists announcing their intentions to protest a military parade’s inclusion in the programme.

One group is planning to celebrate in its own way the 400 years of French-speaking peoples in North American on the sidelines of the main event.

Promoters of the side show have chided main event organisers for focusing too much on the party, and not enough on its historical basis.

Quebec separatists meanwhile have criticised Canada’s federal government for suggesting the festivities are not just a celebration of Quebec City’s roots, but also a celebration of the beginnings of Canada.—AFP