Friday, July 5, 2013

Still Life With Robin: O Canada!

by Kim Newberg, Wikimedia Commons
by Peggy Robin

Canada Day was on Monday of this week, July 1, which prompts me to complain about O Canada, the Canadian National Anthem. Our neighbor to the north, almost all agree, is a big, beautiful, friendly, and remarkably inoffensive country, and so it’s amazing that anyone can find anything to complain about, but give me a chance, and I can complain about anything. So here goes:

The 1908 lyrics to O Canada are in need of a major update/overhaul, as they do not reflect modern Canadian values of tolerance, gender equality, welcoming of immigrants, religious diversity, and fostering of peace between nations.  My line-by-line critique follows:

O Canada!
The anthem starts off perfectly well, but then we get to…

Our home and native land!
[What about all the non-natives -- about 20 percent of Canada’s 2012 population? Compare that to the US, with just 13 percent foreign-born. Canadians, it’s time to stop excluding naturalized Canadian citizens from your anthem!]

True patriot love in all thy sons command.
[The blatant sexism in this line is just so out-of-whack with Canadian egalitarianism. I am shocked to discover there was a move to update the lyrics in 2010 supported by Prime Minister Stephen Harper but it failed when his own Conservative Party refused to back the change. Try again, Canada, please!]

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
[The three lines above are fine the way they are.]

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
[I’m not crazy about the outdated militaristic imagery of Canadians standing watch against invaders [a dig aimed, no doubt, at us, the US, which has invaded Canada twice in its history and failed both times.]

God keep our land glorious and free!
[Canada now has such a plethora of faiths, including many polytheists --and somewhere between 23 - 30 percent who do not believe in any god-- that an imprecation to a monotheistic deity is no longer a good idea in a song meant to unite the country.]

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
[Again, the imagery of standing guard, to keep out or exclude the unwanted. Time for a change!]

So I submit my own modest attempt at a more inclusive version:

O Canada
Our home and treasured land
True patriot love in all of us command [This is the way many Canadian feminists already sing this line]
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we gladly stand by thee.
We’ll keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we gladly stand by thee.
O Canada, we gladly stand by thee.

For a good, short history of the Canadian anthem in English and French, see: http://www.pch.gc.ca/eng/1359402373291/1359402467746

To hear the Canadian anthem sung with subtitled lyrics, see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRPGPAnPNa8

And finally, to see that most famous son of Canada, William Shatner, cover the song --sort of-- with all controversies considered -- hilariously -- see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRTwPyIzY4A

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Still Life With Robin is published on Saturdays on the Cleveland Park Listserv, www.cleveland-park.com, and All Life Is Local.

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