Montreal church bells ring out to celebrate city’s 375th birthday – CP

Source: The Canadian Press
May 17, 2017

MONTREAL _ Church bells rang out across Montreal on Wednesday morning as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Philippe Couillard helped celebrate the city’s 375th birthday.

The bells chimed for several minutes ahead of a mass at the Notre-Dame Basilica attended by Trudeau, Couillard, Mayor Denis Coderre and several hundred other guests.

The day’s festivities will also include a homage to the city’s founders, Jeanne-Mance and Paul de Chomedey, with a performance from the Ecole superieure de ballet du Quebec and Mohawk singers and drummers.

The culmination will be the nighttime illumination of the Jacques-Cartier Bridge.

Called Living Connections, the show includes lights that will change colours to reflect the seasons, the time of day and even the temperature. Those on the Internet will be able to participate in the illumination as clicks on social networks also contribute to the effects.

Trudeau said his birthday wish for Montreal, which was known as Ville-Marie when it was founded on May 17, 1642, is another 375 years of diversity, pride and openness.

The prime minister told reporters at city hall he is a proud Montrealer even though he was born in Ottawa.

He said his father, former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, made it clear where the family came from.

“I grew up in Ottawa, I was born in Ottawa, but my father was a Montrealer and he would bring us here quite regularly,” he said. “He would tell us, ‘No, you live in Ottawa but you’re Montrealers. You just don’t really know it yet.’

“So when I arrived here at the age of 13 after my father left politics, it was like coming home.”

INDEX: NATIONAL ARTS POLITICS