O why change it?

I’ve been singing it for well over 30 years and O Canada as I know it is changing forever (or until society feels there’s something else insensitive about it).

There was a fight to have some lyrics changed. Come to think of it, it started in Canada long before the female-empowering protests in the U.S. throughout 2017.

Liberal MP Mauril Belanger had brought forth a private member’s bill to have the line “in all thy sons command” changed to “in all of us command.” The argument was that this was sexist and excluded an entire gender — and that’s just not very Canadian.

I should point out that over several decades other lines from the national anthem have been changed, though not for any sexism reasons.

In all honesty, I have met many females in my day and none has ever come forward to say O Canada made them feel less of a Canadian. In fact, most I have recently talked to about this issue said they didn’t think anything of it… until it was brought to their attention. And even then, the response was, “Meh.”

So that is what seems to be happening in society. People can be fine with something until they hear others are outraged and then they jump on the bandwagon and shout loudly about their manufactured anger and subsequent protest.

It appears this is just another instance of someone wanting to be a hero and make an issue out of nothing so they can be applauded for making others feel included (even though they didn’t really feel excluded in the first place.)

It would be like purposely starting a fire and then running in and telling everybody to get out. Hero! But it wouldn’t have been a situation if you didn’t make it one.

With the Senate of Canada passing the bill to make the anthem gender neutral, I can see newer generations possibly adopting the revised lyrics since it will be taught that way in school, but I can’t sense my generation and older folks remembering to sing different words when the song is on.

I should point out that Canadians as a whole — those who are so allegedly offended — weren’t asked and there was no public vote on the change, so it is people whose decision making we often disagree with approving the change.