Poll Shows Support for Changing National Anthem
Prince George, B.C.- At the end of the month, Bill C-210 will be up for debate in the House of Commons. That Bill calls for a change to the Canadian National Anthem, removing the Phrase “In all thy sons command” and replacing it with “In all of us command”.
A new Mainstreet Research poll has found 62% of the 2,027 respondents, support the change. That’s up 4% from the same poll conducted a year ago
The polls was commissioned by “Sing All of Us” a national organization which advocates for a gender neutral English national anthem.
The private Members Bill is sponsored by the Honourable Mauril Bélanger, the MP for Ottawa-Vanier.
“As I said many times, there are numerous reasons we would want to sing ‘in all of us command’. We love our country and all of its people. Our anthem is important to us, and we want it to clearly include every Canadian. All of us are proud to sing ‘O Canada’, and ‘O Canada’ should embrace all of us,” said M.P. Bélanger.
The numbers show solid support for this initiative: 62% of Canadians agree with this change, an increase of 4% from 2015, only 19% disagree. Most Canadians (54%) were not aware the anthem had been previously changed.
“O Canada” officially became Canada’s national anthem on July 1st, 1980, a century after it was first unofficially sung, on June 24th, 1880. The French version was written in 1880 and has remained unchanged.
The English version of “O Canada” was slower to take root. The English lyrics written by Mr. Justice Robert Stanley Weir in 1908 became the most widely used. It is interesting to note that the phrase “True patriot love
thou dost in us command” were in the 1908 lyrics. In 1913, in the lead-up to the Great War, this wording was replaced by “True patriot love in all thy sons command.”
Comments
So, when will some agnostic, athiest or Muslim group be lobbying for another change to our national anthem? I am sure that the verse “God keep our land, glorious and free.” Will most certainly be found offensive by SOMEONE…”With glowing hearts, we see the rise” may offend the blind..Or maybe the verse “we stand on guard for thee” might offend some of the people who are non-confrontational and peace loving. Maybe the language barrier will force a further change, and we will have to translate it to Farsi, or Cantonese.
How far is too far nowadays? Gender neutral bathrooms…gender neutral anthem, non-denominational holidays (Merry Christmas is now taboo) no awards for success..just awards for participation.
This has gone too far.. leave well enough alone.
Total agree. Society is getting soft, trying to be inclusive for all.
The Muslims believe in the very same God the the Christians and Jews do . They just have a few other prophets . The Sikhs are an off shoot of Islam with their new prophet . So they have the same God as well . You all have the same invisible friend . Ironic eh ! Or moronic ? Can’t decide .
The news story states “poll shows “support” for changing the national anthem to be gender neutral.” Once again the people who frequent this site demonstrate just how out-of-step they are with the rest of Canada. You all did it during the last election as well, voting in Conservative MPs while the majority of the rest of Canada voted in a Liberal government… and they used to call us a “bell weather” riding.
Thumbs up or down all you want, its not going to change the fact a “majority” of Canadians are in favour of the change, and so it will be changed… the rest of us are just not looking forward to all the local belly-aching and whining and will becoming with that change.
I thumb downed the comment because it’s factually incorrect. Canadians did not vote majority liberal last election. The liberal’s had 39% of the vote. With the flawed first past the post a minority vote got them a majority of seats.
Interesting how they back the notion of a change with some poll numbers… But maybe the poll was not a proper sampling and done with a leading question like all polls by politicians always are. We should be asking what Canadians they asked and what did they ask them.
So, when will some agnostic, athiest or Muslim group be lobbying for another change to our national anthem?
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Who knows. I suppose in a free country like we have here, they can lobby to change it whenever they like. Anyone can.
That said, the fact that it hasn’t been changed since 1913, to me at least, suggests that you and I will likely be long dead before we see any serious consideration being given to any subsequent modifications.
Personally, I think the change from “In all thy sons command” to “In all of us command” is pretty non-offensive. It wouldn’t detract from my patriotism in the least if I were to hear such a modified version. I think it’s a reasonable change.
As for translating it to Farsi or Cantonese, I suspect that could be done now. Heck, it probably already has been done. I don’t, however, expect that they would ever be sanctioned as “official” versions, unless Farsi or Cantonese were added as official languages of Canada. Pretty sure, again, that you and I will be long dead before that would ever happen. In fact, I’d suggest there would be a better chance of the anthem getting a full re-write before that would ever happen.
Who cares! Nobody knows the words to O Canada anyway. After the 2nd line they start singing in French, so I just hum along.
With no apologies to anyone that may conjure up a reason to be offended..I say..
Merry Christmas and God bless everyone….
I call it the mumble, mumble song instead of an anthem. People stand up and sing O Canada, then they go into mumbling and humming.
Watchdog I agree. Give an inch and they’ll take a mile…is nothing sacred anymore? Someone is always stirring the pot and usually it’s just to make a name for themselves..
IN ALL THY SON”S COMMANDS…
helll we;ll sing it the way it was written.. It did us all fine all these years. What they are doing, is not creating a NEW history, but doing away with what history we had. Canadians were all PROUD of this anthem
And who in the world is MAINSTREET RESEARCH????
Probably the same polling geniuses who said the NDP was going to clean up in the last BC election. Here’s a tip : people that respond to cold calls and telemarketing firms are not the popular opinion. Anyone who enjoys speaking to a stranger and giving their opinions over the phone, is not mentally stable, the stuff Silence of The Lambs was made of.
if they are going to getr stupid maybe they should remove or alter “our home and native land”????? at the same time
to our home and changing by demand????????
makes as much sense all the rest of the changes…
we better get rid of the refernce to GOD as well for fear we offend some religios group
“our home and NATIVE land”?
So there you have it folks. Too many possible interpretations of “native.
How about “our home and NEW FOUND LAND” ? That works for those who found it thousands of years ago; then many centuries ago; and then the continuing modern immigrants who continue to find it.
You know, if words are so contentious, and will likely continue to be so through the decades/centuries, we could just stay with the music and forget the lyrics. Not all countries have lyrics to their national anthem. Spain is an example.
Well it seems that the proposed version “in all of us command” is a lot closer to the original “thou dost in us command”, prior to it being it changed before WWI. So why are we fervently hanging onto the changed version?
Social Engineering! It’s everywhere! It’s everywhere!!
Secular , gender neutral anthem would be great and another reason to be proud of our inclusive society . We’ve been drawing lines between us for far too long . We’re all in this together , let act like it .
when They changed our flag to the maple leaf years ago, they should have changed the anthem to “The Maple Leaf Forever”. It has more spunk than what we have. lol
If you have a gender identification problem, just look down and the truth will be revealed immediately. Gender neutrality is a mission promoted by those trying to pussify men.
The best poll I ever saw was one where the question was: “Do you ever lie in your responses to a poll?” Result was like about 89% yes…
I hope that you won’t feel pussifid by putting a woman on our dollar bills . I hate to see anyone put off their cash . Personally I’d like to see the five dollar bill with a big red maple leaf on the front and the words to the national anthem on the back in big bold letters . Then there would be no excuse .
Do some research from this century contractor. Gender and sex are two very different things. Look it up.
Gender neutrality is a mission promoted by those trying to pussify men. No , it’s to be inclusive of our women and girls . If I were one of them I would already be singing the gender neutral words . I guess one would have to have respect for ones grandmother , mother, wife and daughter to understand how they feel .
While they are changing it, take out GOD too. He has no place in a country with so many choices of who, how and where to be. I say this, as a feminist, atheist female for those who care about such a thing.
Don’t be a afraid of change on behalf of equality, be afraid of those who are opposed to it. They are often our rapists, molesters and thrives. Because while laws change, morals often do not.
I’m sure the transgender’s will have a say on this, just wait and see.
Leroy that is two thoughts on one subject. Be careful you are going to hurt yourself.
“62% of the 2,027 respondents, support the change”, so that means 1257 people, out of a population of about 35 million are going to dictate that and how we change the national anthem????????
if they change it I for one will not stand again whenever it is played.leave it alone.
Let’s just put it back to thou dost in us command, then those who are so against changing it won’t have a beef.
As the old Trudeau would say **Fuddle Duddle**
We whine about having women on our money while pretending that we did not have a women (The Queen) on our money for years. I suppose she’s not women enough, or smart enough, or worldly enough, so we need to come up with something else.
Perhaps we should have Gerda Munsinger on our money. She made a few Canadian politicians famous.
I think this would be a slap in the face of our veterans that fought for our country in ww1. A horrendous meat grinder of a war for which one in six Canadian sons from this part of Canada went off to defend Canada and bring our country into its own on the international stage.
It has nothing to do with gender none sense and everything to do with respecting the past and rembering the sacrifices made in the past.
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