Opening Ceremonies
As luck would have it, it was a sunny day on Thursday afternoon, April 27, 1967, when the Official Opening Ceremonies were held. The ceremonies were held at Place des Nations, where Governor General Roland Michener – who was sworn in just 10 days earlier following the death of the previous Governor General, Georges Vanier – officially opened the fair. The Expo flame, which was lit two years earlier as part of the Centennial celebrations, was carried in by a troop of 12 cadets from the Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean, metaphorically representing each province and territory in Canada at that time. The torch bearer was Joseph Philip Lonuel, who proceeded to pass on the torch up the hierarchy of governance: to the Commissioner General of the Fair, Pierre Dupuy; then to the Mayor of Montreal, Jean Drapeau; then to the Premier of Quebec, Daniel Johnson, Sr.; then finally to the Prime Minister of Canada, Lester B. Pearson who was the last in the chain. The Prime Minister used the torch to light the Expo flame. On hand were over 7,000 media and invited guests including 53 heads of state. Over 1000 reporters covered the event, which was broadcasted in NTSC Color, live via satellite, to a world wide audience of over 700,000,000 viewers and listeners. The Golden Centennaires, the forerunners of the Canadian Forces Snowbirds, closed the opening ceremonies with a fly-by over the Expo site and Montreal harbour.
Read more about this topic: Expo 67 (opening Week)
Famous quotes containing the words opening and/or ceremonies:
“His leanings were strictly lyrical, descriptions of nature and emotions came to him with surprising facility, but on the other hand he had a lot of trouble with routine items, such as, for instance, the opening and closing of doors, or shaking hands when there were numerous characters in a room, and one person or two persons saluted many people.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Despite compelling evidence that she will be working at 35, by choice or necessity, today’s 21-year-old woman has difficulty looking beyond the ceremonies of her marriage and her babies’ christenings.”
—Marilyn Bender (b. 1925)