Get ready to memorize new words to the national anthem.
Parliament is to be asked to review the "original gender-neutral wording of the national anthem," says the throne speech delivered by Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean on Wednesday.
O Canada includes the lyrics "true patriot love in all thy sons command," and there may be interest in changing that line to something more inclusive.
O Canada, with music composed by Calixa Lavallée in 1880, became the national anthem in 1980, replacing God Save The Queen.
The surprise proposal to review the lyrics had parliamentary observers buzzing. The throne speech gave no indication what prompted the plan.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said the initiative to change the lyrics is the kind of "symbolic gesture" the Conservative government makes when it doesn't want to do anything real. "Anything that makes a national anthem more gender-sensitive is a good thing," he told CBC News.
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2010 ... nthem.html
