My Wet Coast Life

After writing about the hateful Gil LeBreton's article comparing us to Nazi Germany, i assumed it would be the last attack i would hear or read for awhile against Canadian Pride. I guess with the Olympic's "modified" version of our anthem at the openning and closing ceremonies has given our own government an idea. Our "wonderful" Conservatives, 3 days after the Olympics ended and after proroguing Government for a second year in a row, announced in the throne speech it will ask Parliament to examine the original wording of the Canadian anthem. They want to change O'Canada lyrics. What? Come on....do they have nothing better to do than waste tax payers dollars to change our anthem? It was proclaimed Canada's national anthem on July 1, 1980, 100 years after it was first sung on June 24, 1880. Now for those unfamiliar with the lyrics and to show the current version adopted pursuant to the National Anthem Act in 1980, it reads as follows:

"O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North, strong and free!
From far and wide, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee."

The basis for the change is the phrase "In all thy sons command" has some women calling for a gender-neutral version. Now wasting our tax dollars, they will create a parliamentary committee to study whether the phrase "In all thy sons command" should be changed to "Thou dost in us command", which the Prime Minister’s Office says is the wording from the original version, which they are at least correct on that.

Now I understand it was the original wording, BUT you need to keep in mind the version on which the official English lyrics are based on was written in 1908 by Mr. Justice Robert Stanley Weir. Key word is BASED ON. By the way, the French lyrics remain untouched to this day. Even Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff doesn’t object to a more "gender-sensitive" anthem, but said the government should take serious steps to improve the status of women. WOW, Liberals are agreeing with the Conservatives. Well if that is the case, why not join forces and spend the money where it will be useful and have a much larger visible and beneficial impact? Can we say health care? what about education?

Follow up:

Now improving woman's status is one thing and i am not against it. But wasting potentially millions of tax dollars to change 5 words in our National anthem when we have much larger priorities like education and health care shortfalls and deficits growing by the billions. It appears to me that our government has their priorities either mixed up or trying to get more voters on there side for the next election. Where is the accountability of spending our tax dollars? This committee could be used for better means such as identifying gender equality rights and issues and improving those. I can think of much better ways to spend government resources and i assume you can too and changing the lyrics will not improve gender neutrality but rather appears as a cheap, band-aid solution compared to tackling the more complicated side of making our country gender neutral and everyone equal regardless of gender.

Now to stir the pot, i am not religious nor am I against other people believing in religions but to me organized religion should keep out of politics and vice versa, in my opinion. Now if the government is going to spend the time and resources to change the lyrics to make it more gender neutral, why not also change the line "God keep our land glorious and free!" and make it religion neutral while they're at it? Does this not offend any Canadian citizen who doesn't believe in a god but another type of deity or religious leader or nothing at all? Why are our politicians not wanting to make it "religion-neutral" as well? They removed morning prayers in public schools but then we sing the anthem....hmmm

Why you might ask? Cause in my opinion, we know that is a potential, if not confirmed, political career killer when you mix religion and personal views. Our politicians follow the flock like sheeple and only rarely do you have one stand up against the flock and speak based on morals and beliefs regardless if it will get them re-elected or asked to resign. We elect them to represent us and our constituency but party politics tends to trump one's thoughts and beliefs. Now looking at the untouched French lyrics, which funny enough the Canadian Heritage site only shows the English translation has the line "So also is it ready to carry the cross." Hmmm... another political reference offending the non-religious citizens of Canada. Well, that make a religious reference in both English and French lyrics but i doubt the Government will be willing to change that while they're looking into making it gender neutral? Maybe that will be another committee to investigate why French Canadians, in our bilingual country, don't have there lyrics displayed on the government site? just a thought.

I can only wonder how much in the end this will costs us for the study, let alone if the change goes through. Secondly, will it be put to a vote, and waste more tax dollars, so the whole country can voice there opinion to this change? If the changes go through, do you know how much print material would need to be edited for changing 5 words? Who's going to cover that cost? Plus you now need to re-educate people to use the new lyrics.

In the end, I am against this change and happy with the current lyrics and take them for what they are. Are you for or against this change? Do you think the government should focus on more important issues than this?
Well, that's my 2 bits and i put this out to all Canadians (and everyone else in the world) to inform the Canadian government to leave O'Canada alone and focus on the things that will be more beneficial to Canada and its citizens as a whole.

For those musically inclined, here is the sheet music, true north, strong and free!