Our five year old grandson loves to sing O Canada. When he was here at Christmas time we probably sang it at least a couple of times a day. He also loves to play teacher so Santa brought him his very own pointer for Christmas. Although his reading skills are still developing, he loves to stand at a wall and lead songs or poems from a wall chart.
I've been meaning to write out O Canada on chart paper for him, but haven't got around to it. One of my excuses was that I didn't know whether to use the new version or not. If I wrote "In all of us command" and tried to teach him that, it would be confusing for him, as they are no doubt using the old version at school.
Now, however that issue has been resolved. I was happy to learn that this week the Senate finally passed the bill which amends our national anthem. The Conservatives are angry that other members of the Senate found a way to pass this motion. Apparently eighteen months was not long enough to debate this big change of two words.
I'm especially pleased that we will never have to explain to our granddaughter why O Canada has (had) the words, "In all thy sons command."
Now if I could have everything my way, they would have also changed, "Our home and native land" to "Our home and chosen land" but you can't have everything. This change, to gender neutral wording, was more important. Thanks to the late MP, Mauril Belanger, for championing this cause.
