Mulcair addresses anthem debate

While there has been another push to change the wording of our national anthem, opposition leader Tom Mulcair says it’s best left alone.

Former Prime Minister Kim Campbell and author Margaret Atwood are among a group that wants a more gender-neutral version of “O Canada”. They take issue with one line “in all thy sons command”, wanting it changed to “thou dost in us command”, arguing that was the original lyric, before it was changed ahead of the First World War. Mulclair had this to say about the issue Monday: “I think that when you start tinkering with an institution like a national anthem, your looking for problems. We seem to have agreed on English and French versions as they are and I think that is probably a good thing. They can always be improved. I would like to see us get to a version one day where we get a bilingual version. Which one comes first? I like the Montreal Canadiens version by the way.”

An attempt to make a similar change in 2010 provoked an angry backlash with one poll showing that three quarters of Canadians were opposed to any change in the anthem.