Parliament has been on a “break” for the last two months here in Canada. Yesterday was the first day back, and included the throne speech. One of the “nuggets” in the speech was about the national anthem, specifically, changing the lyrics.
It’s bad enough that most people don’t know the lyrics now. It’s tricky because we don’t normally sing it completely in one language but switch to French for the middle stanza. In 1980, Parliament changed the lyrics to add “far and wide” and “God keep our land”. Right, good. Some folks haven’t caught up with that change and still sing it old school.
The proposed change? “In all thy sons command” to “thou dost in us command” (from the 1908 poem from Judge Robert Stanley Weir). That’s a freakin’ tongue twister. The other proposal is “In all our hearts command”.
Who complained? I’m a woman and I’m not offended by that line. It’s an old poem/song. It’s the way it was back then. It’s part of our heritage. The song doesn’t say “Don’t let women vote! Keep them barefoot, pregnant and uneducated”. Maybe I’m just not enough of a feminist.
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Beyond that aspect, what the hell? Loads of stuff died on the paper when they prorogued Parliament. We have bigger issues than the lyrics in a song, don’t we? Have we solved all our other problems and now we’re just looking for a make-work project?
Fix this “economic downturn”. Fix child poverty. Affordable housing. Health Care. Education. The Environment. Get Stephen an actual personality. Something important.
Way to come back from a 2 month break to tackle the tough issues, Stevie.
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