Steve Harper’s on-again, off-again flirtation last week with expunging sexist language from our national anthem brought back bitter memories of my misspent youth hunched over a battered Underwood.
While neighbourhood kids indulged in light-hearted play—sniping at hunters in the woods or setting fire to the town crematorium—I huddled in the cellar hammering out stories, poems and columns to support Pa’s addiction to Johnny Walker Black—and Blue if he could get it. (Pa often beat me black and blue when my stuff failed to sell.) So it was that 17 years ago, still in the first flush of youth, I composed new lyrics to “O Canada.”
It happened after I spied a report in the New York Times about how something called the “O Canada Fairness Committee” wanted to ditch the obviously sexist line, “True patriot love in all thy sons command,” and replace the last part with “in all our hearts command.”
According to the Times, the Fairness Committee was backed by the likes of Maggie Atwood and Pierre Berton. I marvelled at how prominent scribes like those two could come up with such a lame line. “In all our hearts command?” Were we actually urging the country to command our hearts to love it?
I wrote about how poetically awkward the line was with the two-syllable verb “command” pasted on the end like two dead houseflies stuck on one of those gluey flystrips that used to hang over Aunt Millie’s dinner table.
Of course, “in all our sons command” was meant to rhyme with “our home and native land.” But what was all that about? Native land? Many Canadian citizens were born elsewhere including our first PM, John A. Macdonald, who hailed from Scotland. And who, I wondered, was that fellow “god” in the line: “God keep our land glorious and free”? After all, Canadians belong to all religious faiths, and many of us to none. Why give god pride of place in our national anthem?
By rewriting O Canada, I hoped at last to achieve fame, win fortune and free myself from Pa’s evil clutches. But you know what? After my version appeared in the Halifax Daily News on July 20, 1993, it sank like a stone in the deep, blue sea. But this time my newly revised lyrics are bound to be a hit. I’ll be dancing on Pa’s grave when all those fat government royalty cheques roll in. Eat your heart out, Maggie A!
O Canada!
Our country proud and strong!
Fires us with love, with poetry and song.
With joyous hearts we sing your praise,
The True North wild and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, from sea to shining sea.
Help keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, land of the maple tree.
O Canada, we beaver on for thee!
This article appears in Mar 11-17, 2010.
the national anthem is fine the way it is. it does not need to be changed. the national anthem is not something that needs to be politically correct.
That’s right, halifaxfella, our national anthem, the audible symbol of what we are and what we believe, should be completely upfront with all our racism, sexism, and other isms. and no matter how the world changes or our perceptions change, the national anthem should always always stay exactly the same.
halifaxfella: it wouldn’t matter what the words were. Someone in the chattering classes would take offence. I was going to suggest we drop all the words but we would still be offending someone: the deaf. mags: for god’s sake, get a life.
I think we should drop the current anthem and go with “Take Off” (just the section where Geddy Lee is singing, of course). It’s short, sweet and contains absolutely nothing offensive that I can think of. 🙂
We all deal with racism, sexism, ageism every day. Discrimination is not a part of the anthem. These words instill pride in our country and our heritage, and although they are may not be gender neutral, they don’t imply that Canada needs to be either. We need to stop looking at the words and focus on how the anthem as a whole makes us feel…. Proud to be a Canadian female.
I find it rather perplexing that because female athletes won medals at the Olympics, this should be the reason that we change the national anthem. Women have been struggling for equality for over 100 years: the right to vote, equal pay for equal work (which is still not happening), the right to an abortion, etc. But none of this counted; only athletics. What does this say about our society? Does everyone really worship jocks as heroes? What about women teachers, nurses, doctors, astronauts, mothers, etc? Shouldn’t education, & what women contribute to society as a whole, be held in a higher esteem than playing sports?
O Canada will change over my dead body. Anyone who’s “offended” by the word “sons” should look at having surgery (which is free here BTW) to remove the stick from their ass.
if we were to start changing the anthem now – we would end up being in a 10 year process changing everything in the anthem to avoid offending someone. changing “all thy sons”, “native land” – “whose native land are they referring to”, “god – whose god? and isnt there seperation of church and state”
after 10 years we wouldnt be singing o canada at all it would be something completely different than what we have now. it would be akin to opening the constiution again.
i really do not think that canadians have the stomache to deal with something like this for years and years to only end up with an anthem that no one really likes. if you really want to deal a death blow to national unity, lets start talking abou changing the national anthem.
our government has much more pressing concerns – the environment, education, getting the cons out of power, than changing our anthem
Take god out the anthem while your at it.
“God keep our land glorious and free!”
While keeping our land glorious and free should be top on the list of each Canadian’s “to do” list, worshiping a god should not be even mentioned. It’s offensive to the atheists and polytheists.
PS: I am of course forgetting about the deists as well.
I as well take offense to the God comment…as if somehow Canada has some inalienable right to God keeping our land Glorious & Free !
WHat I believe is glorious is probably very different than what many others consider Glorious !
So let’s rid ourselves of that bit of nonesense.
As for keeping us Free …IF there’s anything free about life in this Country, I have yet to experience it. WE PAY FOR EVERYTHING & usually get a pretty bad deal for our money ! One need go no further than examine (if you can find the info) any of the actions of our various levels of government, its secret !
We want so called freedom in this country, we have & will again, have to fight for it ! Which means those of us who do all the paying…will have to pay this price as well, while those who do all the taking & live off the blood,sweat & tears of the people (aka the politicians & the rich) will actually reap the rewards & we’ll just bury our dead. So it isn’t free, its been BOUGHT & PAID FOR !
I’m also unhappy with “our sons command” What my daughters… don’t deserve mention !?!
What about all the Canadian mothers…without whom, THERE WOULD BE NO SON’ S in the first place. Why are they excluded ?
If your going to include one demographic of the Canadian population, then include all or NONE .
Then there’s the problem with “native land” so I preceive this to mean all of us now alive who were born here…what about those who have immigrated here ? They aren’t ‘native’ (& let’s not at this time open the ancestoral Native can of worms) but they are loyal (hopefully) Canadians, but they don’t get any mention in the anthem !
Let us look at the word ‘Patriot” who decides that ?
THe Dictionary defines patriot as- someone who supports & defends their own country-
What if you stand up & fight against your preceived injustices by your own Government ? Does that mean you are not a patriot ?
Seems like a very GREY area, so why is it there, or are the only real Canadians those who fight for their country & zealously protect it & its Government even if that Government is corrupt. Does this then mean the rest of us who work and pay taxes, but don’t support our Government & their inane policies, are just expendable drones ?
The Canadian Anthem is simply a blow back to the early days when people were still used to being Lorded over by the Church & the Aristocracy (AKA the rich).
People were less informed & really much more complacent…shall I call a spade a spade & say sheep like in their thoughts & manners.
The Canadian Antem is a part of our past in my opinion , that has outlasted its usefulness, & should be tossed in the trash with the rest of the garbage. For all the reasons I’ve given are why I haven’t sung it since elementary school, & will not stand or sing it today.