OTTAWA — Canadian women, who owned a bit more of the Olympic podium than their male counterparts, may live to see an end to their exclusion from Canada’s national anthem.
The Conservative government announced Wednesday in the throne speech that Parliament will explore rewording the anthem and returning it to its original gender-neutral wording.
Opposition MPs said they have no problem with reconsidering the wording, but that they also want the government to take more concrete action to encourage the equality of women in Canada.
New Democrat MP Olivia Chow said she’s confident there can be a quick and long overdue reworking of the song. “This is a useful thing to do. What about the daughters?” she asked.
Watching Canadians mumble their way through the words of the anthem during the 14 gold medal presentations at the Vancouver Olympics may have been the trigger needed to rally enough support to finally purge the song of language that suggests “true patriot love” is only commanded of Canada’s males or, more specifically, “all thy sons.”
A return to writer Robert Stanley Weir’s 1908 original words means the opening lines would be:
“O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love thou dost in us command.”
Those gender-neutral words were replaced when a different version of Weir’s poem was chosen as the country’s official anthem in the 1980 National Anthem Act:
“O Canada! Our home and Native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.”
The phrase “sons command” has long seemed outdated, given women’s participation in every walk of life, including the Canadian military.
Most recently, Canadian women flexed their muscle by winning 14 medals at the Vancouver Olympics, three more than their male teammates.
In gender-equal touch, ice dancers Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue shared the podium for gold, giving Canada a total of 26 medals.
A senior government official said a parliamentary committee would be asked to study the issue and make a recommendation on how to proceed.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff shrugged off the initiative as a poor substitute for genuine action to improve the lot of women.
“Anything that makes a national anthem more gender sensitive is a good thing,” he told reporters. “But, with no disrespect [to] those who feel strongly on this issue, but for heaven’s sake, we’ve got some very important challenges. And every time the government is asked to do something real, it does something symbolic.”
Mr. Ignatieff criticized the Conservatives for stripping the goal of “equality” out of the mandate of the Status of Women, and also for killing the Liberal plan to create a national child care program after they won power in 2006.
Ms. Chow echoed Mr. Ignatieff’s complaints. The Toronto MP said there will not be equality for women until there is wage parity between the sexes.
“How can there be equality if women are still earning 70 cents for every dollar earned by Canadian men,” she asked. “Even though O Canada is gender neutral, we still do not have equality.”
Some critics said changing the anthem would be ridiculous and a waste of time.
“This is a bunch of garbage,” said Bob Greene, chairman of the Calgary branch of the Monarchist League of Canada. “Just leave it alone. These general-neutral complaints are getting carried away to the point that we are changing our whole language and history.”
For the record, here are the two versions:
ORIGINAL ENGLISH LYRICS TO O CANADA
By Robert Stanley Weir, 1908
O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love thou dost in us command.
We see thee rising fair, dear land,
The True North, strong and free;
And stand on guard, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
Refrain
O Canada! O Canada!
O Canada! We stand on guard for thee.
O Canada! We stand on guard for thee.
O Canada! Where pines and maples grow,
Great prairies spread and lordly rivers flow,
How dear to us thy broad domain,
From East to Western Sea;
Thou land of hope for all who toil!
Thou True North, strong and free!
(Refrain)
O Canada! Beneath thy shining skies
May stalwart sons and gentle maidens rise,
To keep thee steadfast through the years,
From East to Western Sea.
Our own beloved native land,
Our True North, strong and free!
(Refrain)
The version adopted in 1980 reads as follows:
“O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see the 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.”
– With files from David Akin, Canwest News Service, and the Calgary Herald
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