Poets rarely, if ever, agree with the Harper government’s actions or policies, but in the recent hoopla over changing a controversial bit of our national anthem, we commend him for reneging on his promise to consider the matter. It’s one of his best decisions since taking office. He should be applauded— but no too loudly. We don’t want encourage him too much.

 

On the other hand, we want to reprimand the Foundation for Public Poetry (FPP) for being upset with Harper’s decision. Back in January, it ran a contest to find a suitable replacement for the objectionable word “sons” in “in all thy sons command.”  What we object to, however, is that after receiving submissions from all ten provinces, the organization had the nerve to accept and officially endorse “…all persons command…” which we consider ugly, unpoetic and so PC— politically correct, not Progressive Conservative—  that it reeks.

 

How can any poet support this? It’s so unrhythmic and “bureaucratese.” And, of course, it is as sexist as the very one it is replacing. And it is even more insidious because it’s subliminally sexist. Can’t the FPP see that the word “persons” contains the word “sons”?

 

If the FPP Poetry Language Police is examining the contemporariness of our anthem, then it should look at the whole anthem.  If the FPP wants precision, then perhaps it should demand that the government also change “…our home and native land…” to “our home and NOT our natives’ land…”.

 

While we’re on the subject, why not consider replacing “sons command” with “jocks command” or the more politically-correct “jock and jockettes command” since we sing our anthems mostly at sports events, anyway. Or how about tailoring the lyrics for different occasions? For instance, begin with “O Canadada” at spoken word events and continue with “all thy dada’s command.” At funeral ceremonies for soldiers returning in body bags, we could sing “all our deads command”; and at Progressive Conservative rallies, “all our President’s command.”

 

Now that the Prime Minister has reversed himself on this silly suggestion, perhaps he could also reverse himself on the issues of doubling the funding for sports and freezing funding for the arts. For that we would stand on guard.

 

Endre Farkas

Elias Letelier

Carolyn Marie Souaid

 

Editors

Poetry Quebec