11 visions of the country inspired by our national anthem
"Our home and native land."
"True patriot love."
The images and phrases of O Canada have a way of embedding themselves into how we think and talk about this country.
In this series of short essays (and one infographic!), Canadian writers, musicians, educators, poets and leaders riff on big and little topics inspired by the anthem's lyrics — from climate change and individual privacy to Indigenous land rights and that special brand of Canadian patriotism. Oh, and grammar too.
But first, a quick refresher.
O Canada
First commissioned in 1880, the anthem was originally in French alone — that's Ô Canada — with music by Calixa Lavallée and words by Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier. It wasn't until 1906 that the tune got English lyrics, courtesy of Robert Stanley Weir. And while the French edition has remained untouched all these years, O Canada has been revised twice, most recently in 1980 when it became, finally and officially, our country's anthem.
Bill C-210 to amend the National Anthem Act (currently before the Senate) may mean the venerable standard gets a timely, gender-neutral sesquicentennial update — replacing "all our sons command" with "all of us command" (more on that below). But revisions aside, it's a song most of us have sung over the years without stopping to think about what we're even saying.
No longer.
- UPDATE (June 28, 2017): Tory senators succeed in stalling gender-neutral O Canada
Our home and native land
"Our home and native land?" asks Cynthia Wesley-Esquimaux, the Chair on Truth and Reconciliation at Lakehead University. "Me, I hear home on Native land, the lands of my ancestors." In her essay, she explores the idea of a home for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people alike.
True patriot love
"We often turn up our noses when called upon to be proud of ourselves. And I hope that keeps going, actually. I hope that we never become a country that is sure of our own miraculous advances." Contrasting true patriot love on both sides of the border, Michelle Dean ponders Canadian patriotism as ambivalence.
In all thy sons command
CBC Arts' Amanda Parris picks up the thread and asks: "What true love is this anthem celebrating? Is it a redacted truth of Canadian benevolence, or is it a critical and challenging truth that demands accountability?" And of course, who are the sons — or, Senate willing, the "us" — being called to that patriot love?
With glowing hearts
Sarah Blyth — founder of the Overdose Prevention Society in Vancouver — reflects on compassion in the midst of an addiction crisis in her city. "When I think of 'glowing hearts,'" she says, "I think of what I've seen in my community — empathy."
We see thee rise
How will a changing climate change our country? The rise of waters, the spread of fires, and the loss of species... where might our current path take us in the next 100 years?
The True North strong and free
"If Canada is a northern nation, then everyone can claim to be a northerner. However when it comes to the Inuit Nunangat region of Canada, the historical and uneducated view of an empty and barren "north" often prevails that neglects Inuit history, rights, and political realities." In his essay, National Inuit Leader and President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami Natan Obed examines "the True North."
From far and wide
Musician, writer and filmmaker Ian Foster was born and raised in Newfoundland. "I live twenty minutes from Cape Spear — the most easterly point in the country — and so every Canadian journey goes west." When our geography has us scattered far and wide, Foster asks, what is it that makes us feel unified?
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee
"The Canadian values that we 'stand on guard' for include the right to a private sphere, the right to a place where people can gather to discuss heterodox ideas, like votes for women, or marriage equality, or Indigenous land claims, or even legal pot. You cannot defend these values by taking them away." Blogger, journalist and science fiction author Cory Doctorow weighs in on Internet privacy — and what's at stake when we lose it.
God keep our land glorious and free
"If anyone can keep our beautiful land of Canada glorious and free, it is not God." So thought writer, performer and staunch anti-theist Diane Flacks. "But then," she writes, "I wrote a play about religion in Canada, and I learned a few things."
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee
Canada's poet laureate George Elliot Clarke asks who are "we"? And whom are we on guard against? "When we 'stand on guard,' are we unthinking, unblinking patriots? Or are 'we' able to defend Canada while remaining critical of politicians' motives and parties' interests?"
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee
And finally, grammar. Is there one "thee" too many in our national anthem? Broadcaster and author Bill Richardson takes a crack at O Canada's oft-archaic language: "It doesn't matter how liberally you slather it with nuance, 'thee,' in any contemporary, non-ironic, application, makes the butt clench and the lips pucker, or vice-versa."
