Discussions

So this morning on the news I saw poll results that claim 62% of Canadians favour changing the lyrics of Oh Canada from "all our sons command" to "all of us command". I found this interesting because just last week I saw another poll that said over 70% want to leave it alone.  
 
Personally I don't want to see it changed. Tradition over rampant of political correctness. I disagree with appeasing the vocal minority at the expense of the silent majority. What does eBrandon think? Maybe Adam could set up a poll?

"all our sons command" to "All of us command" actually means the same thing! In the definition of "sons" refers to people of a country - male or female. We are all sons of Canada. I see no point to change this as it was never gender specific. There are more urgent things to be dealt with in this country than changing our National Anthem.

The selfie prime minister only has pressing issues like this to deal with. Have to appease all the minority groups and lifestyles

of tradition and think our anthem should be left as is.  
 
thank you to  
Larry Maguire for his words in the house of commons regarding this issues.

When was the anthem last changed?

It was last changed in 1980 when the line, "From far and wide, Oh, Canada, we stand on guard for thee" was put in place of a repetitive line of, "We stand on guard, Oh, Canada, we stand on guard for thee. "

The anthem has been changed many times. The line in question used to be "Thou dost in us command", which I like quite a bit better than its replacement.  
 
Since tradition is so important to the "political correctness is horrible" crowd, why not go back to the original?  
 
I would also suggest that if you can't even spell the title of "O Canada", you have other things to worry about besides the lyrical content.  
 
Edited by acidbasement, 2016-05-17 11:29:15

You should start with its title...  
it's O Canada Not "Oh Canada"  
 
"Oh Canada" make it seem like Canada was an after thought!  
Oh (Yeah) Canada.  
 
It's original Title I believe is "O Canada" as it was written in its lyrics.

Yes, it has been changed in the past and probably shouldn't have been then either. If you keep changing your nation's traditions because of political correctness, the latest social trend or whatever, pretty soon you won't even know who you are as a country anymore. According to the posts so far, it looks like 4/8 or 50 percent, not including my post, want to leave it the way it is.

Is it bad that I don't care either way? Both sound fine to me and if it's been changed before, than the tradition card doesn't really come into play either IMO

So sorry about the "Oh". I typed "O" but I guess auto correct changed it and I wasn't paying attention. Since people are being so picky, perhaps those of you who use the ampersand key instead of typing "and" in the Message title could try the latter more often. For anyone who uses the eBrandon app, all we see is a bunch of gobbledygook instead of the title. Maybe this is a glitch that Adam could fix in an update?

I guess it happens with quotation marks as well, as I just did myself! Headsmack!

FWIW, I think national anthems are silly.  
 
Try this exercise though, now and in the future: when you're disparagingly about to type the words "political correctness", try substituting the phrase "not being a jerk" into the sentence, and see if it still fits. If it still fits, then political correctness is not really all that bad in that particular case.  
 
Excluding 50% of the population from your "traditional" version of national identity might be considered a jerky thing to do, therefore meriting a change.

Personally I think it should be changed to "all of us command". Nothing to do with being political correct from my point of view but to be more inclusive. Sorry, but when I hear "sons" I think of men, males - not women. As an older female, quite old actually, I feel like I am not i:ncluded. It was changed from the original version around 1908 when the word God was added as it wasn't in the original version. Then again in 1914 as WWI began and the women's suffrage movement was starting to take take off. That's when the the lyrics were changed to "all our sons command". Whether these two events played any part in the changes I don't know. Just wanted to state my feelings on this.  
 
Edited by WestWind, 2016-05-17 16:08:23

I understand that some feel that Sons makes some feel uncomfortable but if the purpose is to make all feel like we are included and apart of the anthem (Country), what about those who don't believe in God? Do they have the right to request that the word "God" be removed from the Anthem so they feel included?  
 
OR does "God" cover those who worship "Buddha" or those of the Muslim faith? What about calling "God" the "Creator" in recognition of the traditional First Nations faith?  
 
All opening this debate accomplishes is further debate and putting other points of view as to what is the best anthem for Canada? This is a debate that is never going to satisfy everyone.

Some traditions need to be changed.  
 
Remember the tradition of women not voting? Or the tradition that everything must stay closed on Sundays? The tradition was that only men could be in the military.  
 
But Canada evolved to include everyone.  
 
I find it noninclusive to emphasize the "sons" and not the daughters. To say that sons include both male and female is not a tradition. "My Three Sons" did not have one male child and two female children. The term "sons" means male children and excludes the female half of the population. The obscure reference from a previous poster has never been in my vocabulary and I would like to see a proper scholarly citation of the source. My father's son was not allowed to sign up for high school football ... because that son happened to be a girl.  
 
Change it to be inclusive and reflect the twenty-first century reality.

Out of 15 replies so far, 2 or 3 feel it should be changed. This is about what I expected. Having said that, I wouldn't be surprised at all if it does get changed. We tend to ignore the wishes of the majority lately in order to not hurt anyone's feelings.  
 
On the topic of hurt feelings, I apologize that my spell-check changed O to Oh. Seems to have hit a nerve!

JackAzz said "Out of 15 replies so far, 2 or 3 feel it should be changed. This is about what I expected. Having said that, I wouldn't be surprised at all if it does get changed. We tend to ignore the wishes of the majority lately in order to not hurt anyone's feelings.     On the topic of hurt feelings, I apologize that my spell-check changed O to Oh. Seems to have hit a nerve! "

Don't make the mistake of thinking that a nonrandom sample of Western Manitoba internet users can give you any idea of what the majority of the country is thinking.

Farmers Feed the World said "Should it be changed? I can see both sides. What I take exception with is there are much much more pressing matters they should be focusing on. Maybe 80000 homeless from the fort Mac fires, the collapse of the oil industry, bombardier trying to scam us for a bailout, no new talk of pipeline. The list goes on and on. "

It is possible for the government to work on many different situations at the same time.  
 
Should women be excluded from Canada until all other problems are resolved to your satisfaction?  
 
Do women still have to pay taxes while this exclusion continues?

katwalk1909 said "    Farmers Feed the World said "Should it be changed? I can see both sides. What I take exception with is there are much much more pressing matters they should be focusing on. Maybe 80000 homeless from the fort Mac fires, the collapse of the oil industry, bombardier trying to scam us for a bailout, no new talk of pipeline. The list goes on and on. " It is possible for the government to work on many different situations at the same time.     Should women be excluded from Canada until all other problems are resolved to your satisfaction?     Do women still have to pay taxes while this exclusion continues? "

Excluded from Canada? You don't think thats a bit of a stretch?

i like the change and i think god could be changed at the same time too, I also think it doesnt take up that much time for the government to change the song, better then them making up new laws and taxes for its citizens imo