Fredericton firing guns Thursday to celebrate heritage

Tourism Fredericton will celebrate Canada's 150th birthday early by ending this year's' tourism season with a big bang; a volley of 150 shots fired downtown, Thursday at suppertime.

The Government of Canada reached out to major cities asking if they would like to participate in the countdown of 2016 beginning on August 4 and ending after 150 days.

Fredericton Tourism accepted the offer to participate in celebrations and began planning.

"We thought Fredericton was a natural fit given our history," Fredericton Tourism's Stacey Russell told Information Morning.

150 shots planned downtown

The salute will feature 25 volleys of six shots each, from the rifles of Fredericton's ceremonial guards in Officers' Square.

With the daily changing of the guard ceremony long a part of Fredericton's tourism program, using the guards seemed the proper way to honour the country's anniversary.

"Ultimately the Canadian Army was born in 1883 with the establishment of the infantry school core company A in Fredericton and it's a great part of Canada's history," said Russell.

Guards main focus in event

Tourism in Fredericton downtown centres around the guards and their historical lives including walking tours, the changing of the guards, and the inspection of the guards ceremony which normally happens in Officers' Square.

The planned volleys of shots are expected to draw some visitors to downtown.

"For myself watching it with visitors all around me it is quite thrilling," said Russell.

"There's no doubt the very first one (shot) will make people stop and pay attention for a moment and then all eyes stay on the guards for sure while the rest of the ceremony takes place."

Russell said the plan is for the ceremony to take a little over ten minutes, and then to continue with the regular guard ceremonies afterwards.

"Our regular Fredericton guard ceremonies do fire shots so this would have a little bit more but we looked at the best way of being able to get it done as quickly as possible because we didn't want to drag on the ceremony," said Russell.

The dry run for the celebration will be earlier in the day without shots and the ceremony itself will take place at 5:30 p.m. in the square downtown in front of the Fredericton Region Museum.