Canadian Conservatives Suggest O Canada Anthem Be Gender Neutral

Thanks, I thought so too.

I never even thought about this before and I'm female. I say leave it alone, there's no need to tamper with something just for the sake of it.

Barry: Thanks libby for being politically correct! I always knew that you'd see the light some day and admit the error of your ways!

Change for the sake of change, Do you really think the Feds care? This is just allowing them to get other laws/changes put through while we are focusing on this.I for one will sing it the way it is now.Think about the cost of changing it, in all books, recording across the world....who pays for that with our 16 Billion dollar deficit?

i wonder why the cons want to do this at this time surely the economy and job creation is of more concern...as a person who fought for pay equity and the rights of women teachers to become principals and supervisors i want the anthem left as it is...talk about smoke and mirrors get with the program mr harper

Pile of crap. Oh Canada is just fine the way it is...spoken like a true Canadian woman, eh.

Oh Com'on Oh Canada!  This is your conservatives?

Sons in that matter is for all the Canadians that fought to keep us free.That means men and women. Plus if you have any other problems think about the other two verses that is in it that has been taken away due to Religious meaning to it

I think I learned "all our hearts command," not "all thy son's command."  If it's going  to be changed, that's what it should be.

I can only imagine how that "tongue-twister" would sound.  Come on, let's try it in unison now .....  “O Canada! Our home and native land!  True patriot love thou dost in us command.”  Sounds like silliness to me!

If they change that to accomidate the lyrics to the song from all thy sons command to make it polittically correct then they might as well lfinish it and change the lyrics form we stand on guard for thee., because not all Canadians can not stand.

When Canada has solved all other problems this could be something to discuss.  Until then leave it alone.

Well I don't trust the motives behind it, but to me the idea seems sensible.  However, returning to archaic words would not be so effective.  current line:  "true patriot love in all our sons command."  Meaning, may you inspire patriotism in all our sons, especially if they must fight for our country.  These days, however, our daughters also qualify.  Why not instead of "true patriot lovethou dost in us command" we went with a similar phrase "true patriot love in all of us command."  After all, it matches for meter and rhyme, goes gender neutral, takes the onus upon the singer instead of the guy next to him, and is in modern english!

I didn't think up this variant, a local DJ on the radio did, but it would work!

As to the statement of gender neutral dishonoring both genders, huh?  Please elaborate, I don't understand why you think it's dishonoring.   Maybe you're just tired of having to learn new phrases, but ashamed to admit it?

Thanks everyone for your comments, my statement that Using a gender neutral word dishonours both men and women."  makes us non entities, we are men and women, period!  What's next? Instead of  "Stand on guard for thee", replaced with "Criminals please, opps I mean please those of you who suffer from law and order deficit attention, please do not hurt us"!  Gimme a break, I think this Olympic size blunder won't win the conservatives any medals on the election podium that's for sure.

Although you raise some good points and make an effort to present different views, the credibility of this article is compromised by the random statistic included in parentheses. Although women may very well make 70 cents per every dollar a man makes, without any citation or source of how you know this or how this is empirically proven the credibility and professional attitude of this article goes out the window.

Well Donovan, methinks, a women's T-4 annual tax receipts of earnings is pretty good validation of my comments and proof.  I think most here especially women would agree! But then if one lives in his parents basement, eating cheeto's and fantasizing wearing Lt. Uhura's uniform as they tally how many Star Trek episodes they can squeeze into one day, perhaps work and a T-4 slip is beyond some people's comprehension?  But Hey thanks for the comments. Anyone wish to add to it?

I think Donovan needs to open his eyes and ears and perhaps he can find the answer in the media or at the very least in a Stats Canada site. 

Donovan I think you missed the point of Barry's remarks.  He said we had bigger fish to fry than to worry about lyrics in our National Anthem ("in all thy sons command").  Looking for stats on pay equity just diverts from the issue. 

I think it should be changed, it was the first one after all. It's a little embarassing that our anthom has inequality in it.

you guys lmaoif you only knew what "in all thy sons command" meansThy Son = Gods Son = Jesustrue patriot love, under the command of Jesusthis isnt to be gender neutral,  its one more step of removing Jesusto Dost  in us command?   "Do as we command?"so we are supposed to accept the law of the government over the law of Jesus?id rather have my head removed

Thanks for the comments everyone, here is my companion piece to this story where it is revealed who instigated this change the name game which infuriated Canadians. Tories flip flop changes to the national anthem

It's getting harder every day to be a proud Canadian, first they take the Lord's prayer out of schools to accommodate foreigners rights and now this. What about the rights of the Canadian people that have been here for decades. Now a bunch of feminists want to re-write Canadian history by changing the anthem, like men didn't fight in the war to give us this country we have today. Being in America for the last 10 days on vacation it was awesome to see people patriotic for their country and not petty petty people trying to get rights, rights, and more rights for themselves... If you don't like Canada you have the "right" to go back to where you came from.