Liberal MP Mauril B茅langer wants to change a few words of O Canada, and why not? Our national anthem has been changed several times before and the country has managed to stay more or less intact.
The Ottawa MP intends to table a private member鈥檚 bill that would make the anthem more gender-neutral by changing 鈥渋n all thy sons command鈥� to 鈥渋n all of us command,鈥� a suggestion that has been supported by many 91原创s. It鈥檚 an easy fix that dispels any suggestion that patriotism is a sentiment felt only by men.
B茅langer introduced an identical bill in the last session of Parliament. MPs from all the opposition parties supported the change, but almost all Conservative MPs voted against it. The current Liberal majority should ensure its passage.
O Canada was originally written in French, commissioned by Th茅odore Robitaille, the lieutenant-governor of Quebec, for the 1880 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony. That version remains unchanged.
The version we now sing in English is largely the song written in 1908 by Robert Stanley Weir (although the song didn鈥檛 become our official anthem until 1980). In 1914, Weir changed the phrase 鈥渢hou dost in us command鈥� to 鈥渋n all thy sons command鈥� in honour of soldiers fighting in the First World War. Other minor wording changes have been made since then.
Plans to reform the Senate and the way we vote are likely to be controversial issues. A simple amendment to the national anthem? Not so much.
