Canadian lawmakers vote to make national anthem gender neutral

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Bring_Back_Shantz

There seem to be quite a few folks here that are both offended that they lyrics are changing, and can't fathom why people might be offended by lyrics.

Strange.

Why do we even need a national anthem? We should just get rid of it entirely.

Or if some people or so irrationally sentimentally attached we can keep the music and maybe hum or mumble along. No words or lyrics.

Cant offend people and you never know what does offend some people so we as conscientious Canadians shouldnt be taking any risks and just eliminate all the words.

[dino7c]

this is another "selfie moment" so the government can sit around talking about how progressive they are and smell their own farts

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Serious question on this- how is this relevant? I understand that Bélanger was the one who brought this forward, but why do we need to make the change before his condition worsens (or he passes away?) I'm not trying to be cold; just trying to understand the reason.

If the wording is "wrong", it seems like they rushed this through instead of taking the time to get it "right."

Because if it's important to him, and we know there's enough support, it's a reasonable thing to do

[Zarley]

I don't hate the idea of changing the wording to be gender neutral but "in all of us command" is simply poor English.

[Zarley]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Because if it's important to him, and we know there's enough support, it's a reasonable thing to do

I believe that polling suggests that the vast majority of Canadians are opposed to any change.

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by Zarley

I don't hate the idea of changing the wording to be gender neutral but "in all of us command" is simply poor English.

Not really, at least no more than the previous version. In both versions the subject of the sentence (Canada in this case) is implied rather than said:

True patriot love in all thy sons [you] command.

True patriot love in all of us [you] command.


They could've made bigger changes to the line to make it clearer to a modern ear, but I imagine they wanted to keep as much of it as possible.

[FlamingHomer]

Originally Posted by Locke

Why do we even need a national anthem? We should just get rid of it entirely.

Or if some people or so irrationally sentimentally attached we can keep the music and maybe hum or mumble along. No words or lyrics.

Cant offend people and you never know what does offend some people so we as conscientious Canadians shouldnt be taking any risks and just eliminate all the words.

That is actually a great idea on so many levels.

[PsYcNeT]

+1 vote to change the anthem to DJ Shadow's Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt.

[lambeburger]

http://news.nationalpost.com/full-co...ational-anthem

[Hack&Lube]

Next step?

"Let's keep our land, glorious and free"

Also, I can't help but remember that we are rhyming "Free" with "Stand on Guard for Thee" and thereforce, the usage of "in all of us command" is even more incongruous with the structure of the song and the usage of old english. That's why "thy sons" worked. It really should be "Thou dost in us command".

[Buff]

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

"all thy hearts" sounds better.

I agree. I'm opposed to the change because for one thing it is change, but mostly because the new proposed wording sounds rather lame to me.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Next step?

"Let's keep our land, glorious and free"

Also, I can't help but remember that we are rhyming "Free" with "Stand on Guard for Thee" and thereforce, the usage of "in all of us command" is even more incongruous with the structure of the song and the usage of old english. That's why "thy sons" worked. It really should be "Thou dost in us command".

No man, what about people who dont own their own home and thus by definition are not landowners and as such it isnt 'their land.' Are you going to risk offending them and casting them in a lower light due to their socio-economic position?

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Serious question on this- how is this relevant? I understand that Bélanger was the one who brought this forward, but why do we need to make the change before his condition worsens (or he passes away?) I'm not trying to be cold; just trying to understand the reason.

From what I understand, the MP in question has had this as a pet project for some time. A little compassion in helping him see his political legacy, albeit a small one, before he ends up being unable to participate due to ALS isn't a terrible thing. Has the bill taken more time than Boobgate (this is what I'm calling it)? At least it was something constructive instead of pointless bickering.

Originally Posted by ken0042

If the wording is "wrong", it seems like they rushed this through instead of taking the time to get it "right."

What would you suggest to make it right? Should there have been a special committee to review the proposed change? It seems that would have caused more ire than this has drawn.

At any rate, it is a small change that I don't really care about one way or the other. "In all of us command" isn't a huge change and is far less clunky than "In us thou dost command" which was the pre "sons" version.

They could change it to something else and it wouldn't bother me. There are just better hills to die on.

[CaptainCrunch]

If I run for parliament someday, I'm going to fake a disease so I can get "Love in an Elevator" by Aerosmith adopted as our secondary anthem that's equivalent to god bless America.

I just want to see a arena full of 20,000 rising removing their hats and rocking to aerosmith.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

If I run for parliament someday, I'm going to fake a disease so I can get "Love in an Elevator" by Aerosmith adopted as our secondary anthem that's equivalent to god bless America.

I just want to see a arena full of 20,000 rising removing their hats and rocking to aerosmith.

We all know that Canada's secondary anthem should be The Thong Song by Sisco.

[icecube]

Wouldnt give a crap if they changed our national anthem to the thong song by Sisqo.

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by OMG!WTF!

"all thy hearts" sounds better.

That makes no sense because it's a possessive phrase. "All Thy Sons" works because Canada possesses lots of sons (it's citizens).

If it was "All THINE hearts" (thine because of consonant and vowel placement), it makes is sound like Canada is some mythical gargantuan beast possessing multiple hearts.

[Dan02]

At first I was like this is a solution looking for a problem.

But then I'm like what are the reasons not to?

Because that's the way we've always done it? well firstly, that's not true, and secondly, it's a pretty crappy reason anyways.

Because the wording is a little weird? I totally agree and think we should have gone "in all of our command" even if technically as pointed out earlier it does have a slightly different meaning.

Other then that it is with decided indifference that i approve of the change.

[N-E-B]

Yeah, I'm all for gender equality, but if you're offended by that line you probably have a pretty crappy life.

Same goes for if you're offended by "God keep our land".

Who cares? They're lines in a song. This seems like being PC for the sake of being PC. Stupid to change tradition.

[Cube Inmate]

O Canada
Oversensitive land
Gender is bad
The Liberals command...