We Canadians can find the darndest things to argue about but in my humble opionion the changes passed yesterday in the Senate, to the national anthem should not be among them. I for one, am proud we have made a change which is not only respectful of our views on gender equality but which also displays the notion we truly care about everyone who lives in this country. As it happens it is also closer to the original English version which first appeared in 1908.
After doing a little research on the anthem I was surprised to see the original version did not contain any mentions of “sons” but was changed 1914. A Wikipedia article says, “Weir’s original lyrics from 1908 contained no religious references and used the phrase “thou dost in us command” before they were changed by Weir in 1914 to read “in all thy sons command”. In 1926, a fourth verse of a religious nature was added.
The original was commissioned in 1880 and written in French. I wonder if there was so much hooplah in 1906 when they introduced an English version. It wasn’t even until 1980 that it was officially recognized as our national anthem. It had been in contension with “The Maple Leaf Forever” for that honour until then and I do recall that the anthem I sang as a child was “God Save the Queen“. There was a lot of uproar when that changed too but I don’t suppose too many of us would want to go back to it now.
I suspect that if the argument had just been to return to the original language rather than making it a women’s rights argument there wouldn’t have been much fuss about it.
While the Conservative Party is trying to make this a political issue I don’t believe it is. It was first introduced to the house as a private members bill which is a motion which does not come through the executive of a party. Motions of this type try to seperate themselves from partisan politics because they are made for the benefit of all Canadians rather than any segment. Most private members bills are more about raising awareness than changing the law and they seldom pass. I think it speaks well of our democratic process that this one made it through the guantlet after about two decades of struggle.
I will happily take a pen to the page in my hymn book on Sunday and change “our son’s” to “of us”. I am thrilled that I live in a country which, for the most part, acts on principle and holds to a spirit of inclusion rather than one which can be changed by the whims of a maniac who holds no regard for the traditions of equaality and acceptance.
Good for us!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/anthem-bill-passes-senate-1.4513317
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Canada
‘O Canada’ lyric change sparks debate, but the anthem was originally gender neutral
Spilt Milk 