Toronto Raptors fans sing “O Canada” as the Toronto Raptors play the Golden State Warriors in game five of the NBA Finals at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on June 10, 2019.
‘O Canada’ is everything that’s wrong with this country
Our national anthem is inoffensive to the point of being offensive. Even from a purely musical standpoint, it’s melodically stagnant, without ever really rising or falling until the final repetition of “O Canada, we stand on guard for thee” toward the end — and right when the song starts to gain steam and inspire anything close to patriotism, it’s already over.
Toronto Raptors fans sing “O Canada” as the Toronto Raptors play the Golden State Warriors in game five of the NBA Finals at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto on June 10, 2019.
When I was 8-years-old, I nearly fell asleep during my Canadian citizenship ceremony. It was during the playing of “O Canada” when I began to get a little droopy-eyed and even now, reflecting on the maple cookies I was given that day inspires more national pride in me than our national anthem ever will.
Let’s face it: “O Canada” is boring. It’s inoffensive to the point of being offensive. Even from a purely musical standpoint, it’s melodically stagnant, without ever really rising or falling until the final repetition of “O Canada, we stand on guard for thee” toward the end — and right when the song starts to gain steam and inspire anything close to patriotism, it’s already over.
Say what you want about our neighbours to the south, but at least “The Star Spangled Banner” can be sung with conviction. The vocally demanding anthem lends itself to distinct creative interpretations whether it’s sung well (think Whitney) or not so well (think Fergie), and in turn, speaks volumes on America’s love of rugged individualism.
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The best national anthems are those that tell us something vital about the country they were made to represent. “O Canada” tells you nothing about Canada — and, in the process, everything wrong with it too.
The chief issue with “O Canada” is that it’s too self-consciously polite to say anything concrete about its heritage. Our anthem’s current lyrics seem to recognize that our borders extend “far and wide.” Is that really the best selling point our country has — that we’re big?
The unofficial English anthem that preceded “O Canada” by over a decade, “The Maple Leaf Forever,” was a far more cogent — if imperfect — illustration of our nation’s beauty. It tied together the Scottish thistle, Irish shamrock and English rose into the single powerful image of the maple leaf.
Imagine a new anthem that once again paid homage to our vast natural sights, from Saskatchewan’s waving wheat fields to Maritime waters. We’re bound by nothing except our imaginations here — so why not pen an anthem that meaningfully explores reconciliation?
Rather than merely talking about our First Nations communities in the context of national wrongs and guilt-laden land acknowledgments, perhaps we ought to create a new anthem that fuses together traditional Indigenous chants and the organ sounds of a Quebec church in the 1600s. I can’t think of a better way to represent our rich history both domestically and abroad.
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With the rising cost of living and a big federal election around the corner, it might seem as though having an uninspiring national anthem is the least of our problems right now. But on some level, “O Canada” is just one more illustration of our country’s collective inability to define who we are, both on the international stage and to ourselves.
If the song meant to unite us during sports games and symbolic ceremonies can’t get the job done, then maybe it’s time we give it another look.
Nadia Khan is a 21 year-old writer interested in the intersections between the personal, political, and pop culture.
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