On this Canada Day, here be the original version of O, Canada, which was written in French, in Quebec – Canada was French before she was also English – for the 1880 Saint Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony, commissioned by the Lieutenant-Governor, Théodore Robitaille, with music by Sir Rudolphe-Basile Routhier, and original French lyrics by Calixa Lavallée. Note in those original lyrics, the militant Christian theme – the almost-never-sung latter verses, of knowing how to bear the sword and carry the cross, with valour soaked by faith.

And here a century and a half on, Trudeau has mangled the English even worse with his 2018 ‘inclusive language’ version. The less said of that, the better. One wonders, in our iconoclastic milieu, how long the anthem will still be sung. But as long as it is so, I would recommend la langue française, which still stand as it stood in those glorious days of 1880, or at least the original, when Canada was truly north, strong and free, and we all should fight to keep her so:

 

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