I rather like "thou dost in us command.'' Well, I guess I'm just too liberal -- or maybe too old fashioned (it was the form of the original English version).
Conservatives backtrack on 'O Canada' review in face of public outcry
By Joan Bryden
THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - O Canada, the Harper government is standing on guard for your lyrics after all.
Just two days after promising to ask Parliament to consider restoring the national anthem's original gender-neutral wording, the Tories have done an abrupt about-face.
They've dropped the idea of changing the phrase "in all thy sons command'' to something more inclusive of women in the face of what they said was "overwhelming'' public opposition.
"We offered to hear from Canadians on this issue and they have already spoken loud and clear,'' Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said Friday.
"They overwhelmingly do not want to open the issue. The government will not proceed any further to change our national anthem.''
Soudas wouldn't elaborate on how the government gauged public reaction to the surprise proposal, floated in Wednesday's throne speech, to go back to the original tongue-twisting wording "thou dost in us command.''
A Tory insider said Harper had hoped the issue along with his promise to champion maternal and child health at the upcoming G8 summit would appeal to women voters, who tend to be more supportive of the Liberals.
However, the prime minister underestimated the backlash among the Conservative party's core supporters, which the insider said the Tories gauged from the uniformly negative reaction on talk radio shows.
... .
University of Calgary political scientist Tom Flanagan, a former chief of staff to Harper, said the idea to tinker with the lyrics likely came from the prime minister himself. He noted that throne speeches are written exclusively by the Prime Minister's Office.
"My guess is that while Stephen was out swanning around Vancouver for the Olympics and a lot of women were doing great there and winning a lot of medals and probably some feminist got to him and said, 'We ought to revise the national anthem,''' Flanagan said in an interview.
"He's always looking for things that can reach out to other constituencies without alienating the Conservative base. So I'm not surprised that he might have seen it in that light, say(ing), 'Well, here's something we can do to show that we're open toward women, particularly women who vote.'
"And maybe he didn't think through or foresee the reaction that would draw from rednecks like me.''
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James Morton
1100-5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4
416 225 2777
1 comment:
I detest the original. Apparently at Maple Leaf games, they instead of "sons" , sing "in all of US command"
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