O Canada!

All together now (with apologies to francophones):

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

A lively correspondence in The Globe and Mail has brought to my attention we probably have the most exclusive national anthem in the world. Consider the "Our home and native land!" line. That would exclude immigrants, who are 18 per cent of our population. Then there's the reference to "... all thy sons command." If our daughters aren't commanded, we can assume women, half of us, are discounted. Next we have "God keep our land ..." which may offend those with no religious affiliation, another 16 per cent. Allowing for overlap, almost two-thirds of Canadians are rudely excluded by their own anthem from being fully Canadian. Not exactly the unifying symbol an anthem ought to be.

But remedies are at hand. Ever resourceful, Globe readers have come to the rescue. John Gault of Toronto suggests, "... all thy hearts command," followed by "With glowing eyes ...," to deal with the sexism, and for the God problem, "Let's keep our land ...," while Meg Clyne of Vancouver cutely suggests, to avoid alienating immigrants, "our home on native land." And the best part is we can do this without changing the constitution.