On this date in 1608 the City of Quebec was founded by Samuel de Champlain.

Frye in an interview with Bill Moyers in 1988:

Moyers: So much of American history has taken on mythological proportions in our society — the city set upon a hill, frontier, the manifest destiny to make the world safe for democracy.  Mythology plays a powerful role in the American consciousness.

Frye: I rather regret that the same mythological patterns are present in Canada and yet are paid so little attention to.  We have our city on the hill, namely Quebec, the fort where the river narrows, a fort that was taken and retaken about five or six times.  And we also have our Maccabean victories in the War of 1812 and the Fenian raids later, and so on.  We have all that mythology potentially.  But because the Americans started with a revolution and a Constitution, they brought the myth right into the foreground of their lives in a way that has never happened with Canada.  (CW 24, 892)