Canada 150 - Similar issues, different decades

Canada’s national anthem has a long, storied, and, sometimes, controversial history.

To most, it seems as if it has always been with us, but many may not realize, it only officially became the anthem 100 years after its earliest appearance.

The song was originally written to satisfy a desire in French Canada to have a national song. “O Canada,” originally titled “Chant national” was written in Québec City in 1880 with words by Sir Adolphe-Basil Routhier and lyrics by Calixa Lavalée. It was performed publicly for the first time on June 24, St. Jean Baptiste Day, in 1880.

The song became popular in French Canada and eventually spread to other parts of the country with various English-language versions of the words, but the de facto anthems for English Canadians remained “God Save the Queen/King” and “The Maple Leaf Forever.”

By World War I, the song had gained popularity in English Canada, but a standard set of lyrics was elusive. The most common was Robert Stanley Weir’s 1908 version, which bears only superficial resemblance to the current one.

By the end of the 1920s Weir’s version had been officially adopted by the Association of Canadian Clubs and by the Diamond Jubilee (50th Anniversary) of Confederation. It was by then sung regularly in schools and at public functions.

It was still many years and many iterations away from official status, however.  

Between 1962 and 1980, more than a dozen bills to adopt the song as the national anthem died on the order paper. Finally, on July 1, 1980 it became official.

It was on this day in 1967, however, that a Senate committee paved the way for that historic event when it voted unanimously to recommend adoption of “O Canada” and established the version of the lyrics we now know.

The French lyrics of the song have never changed and since the National Anthem Act of 1980, the English ones have been set, but we are still wrangling over them to this day.

In the March 15, 1967 edition of The Enterprise, the newspaper’s editorialists were none too happy with the Canadian university peaceniks.

After listing off a number of “offbeat activities” of university students over the decades from swallowing goldfish to kidnapping go-go dancers, the editorial noted “the activities of some groups within the universities has taken a more sinister turn.”

At issue for The Enterprise editors was a Student Union for Peace Action (SUPA) handbook published for prospective American emigrants, a.k.a. draft dodgers.

“The 12-page pamphlet titled “Escape from Freedom” has been distributed in the U.S. and tells the prospective draft-dodger how to apply for residence in Canada, the documents he will require and what he will find when he gets here,” the editorial said.

Sinister, indeed.

It does acknowledge Canadian students have the right to be critical of “how the United States chooses to combat communism” but condemns the method as “a provocative and outright act of interference.”

It is hard not to draw some parallel between then and now as a new cohort of asylum seekers who feel unwelcome south of the border are showing up on our doorstep.

And there is no shortage of Canadian helpers, although pamphlets have been replaced by social media.

That week in 1967, the Yorkton Co-op, which apparently was the Walmart of its day, was having an Anniversary sale.

Ladies and men’s coats were 19.99 and 18.88 respectively. You could get six loaves of bread for one dollar, coffee for 79 cents a pound and three dozen oranges for 99 cents.

In the automotive department, a case of 24 quarts of oil was $10.80 and tractor tires started at $26.95.

If you needed building materials, framing lumber was two cents per linear foot.

And over in the furniture department a three-piece bedroom suite was $189.98.