OTTAWA – Here at home and in places half a world away, Canadians threw themselves a party Sunday to celebrate their country’s 134th birthday.
From a glitzy Hollywood affair at the Canadian consulate in Los Angeles to a quiet ceremony at the site of a First World War French battlefield, the largest gathering was on Parliament Hill, drawing people from across the country.
A blaze of fireworks closed an evening show, featuring fiddler Ashley MacIssac and rock singer Alanis Morrisette.
Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky delivered a Canada Day message via video and composer David Foster introduced a new arrangement of the national anthem via satellite from Vancouver.
Happy revelers outwaited a Sunday morning rain to celebrate the holiday awash in a sea of red and white on Parliament Hill.
“Eight times I have done this and it gets better every time, even when we have rain,” Prime Minister Jean Chretien said in his address to the gathering.
By early afternoon, organizers estimated the crowd at about 20,000.
The Maple Leaf was also in full force in Moscow at a garden party at the Canadian Embassy attended by Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Stephane Dion.
Alberta Premier Ralph Klein was set to hobnob with the stars at a party at the Canadian consulate in Los Angeles, where the theme was Alberta Days.
A pancake breakfast downtown and events at Pier 21, the entryway to Canada for about one million immigrants and refugees, marked Canada Day in Halifax.
In downtown Montreal, thousands of people ignored periodic pouring rain to watch a Canada Day parade.
Canadian flags were everywhere, a rare sight in a city where expressions of nationalism are usually low key.
Across the Atlantic Ocean, some 90 Canadians gathered earlier in Beaumont-Hamel, France, to honor soldiers of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment killed in the Battle of the Somme 85 years ago.
