Historical Pageantry and the "Fusion of the Races" at the Tercentenary of Quebec, 1908

Abstract

Complex political and circumstantial forces worked to transform a modest municipal celebration of the 300th anniversary of Champlain’s founding of his habitation at Quebec into the Tercentenary of the Founding of Canada. The centrepiece of the spectacle was the series of historical pageants produced by a British pageant director with the advice of members of the Comité d’histoire et d’archéologie of Quebec. In a combination of careful selection, deft balancing, and misrepresentation of fact, the powerful and lavish theatre of the pageants displayed a view of Canadian history designed to serve explicit contemporary political goals.