Canada Day

What Does It Mean?

“O Canada”, terre de nos aieux, or something like that.

That’s all I know. It used to be ok to say you didn’t admire our anthem, not because the old words pretended that women didn’t count; it’s because Canada was not seen as cool. It was not “in” to love Canada. Also, the anthem itself kinda sucked.

But maybe now it’s “in”. Feeling very Canadian, I looked it up! The gender neutral bit was changed in 2018 - “True patriot love in all thy sons command” was changed to “True patriot love in all of us command”. That will fix everything - feminists rejoice.

Reading on, I learned how “O Canada” came into being in 1880, 100 years before becoming our national anthem. 100 years? I guess that’s why I sang the British anthem in public school. But get this - the song was commissioned by the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec to mark the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day celebrations in Quebec City. June 24th, Quebec’s national holiday, is still a thing all these years later - singing “O Canada” in Quebec is not.

Quebec City is my excuse for not knowing the words. The Canadian anthem was verboten while I worked in nationalist Quebec. Then, when I moved to Ottawa, it was seen as tacky- journalists did not sing it. I dutifully never learned all the words in either language.

Which brings me to Queen Victoria and her May 24th birthday. Quebec was determined to take the holiday and not the Queen, so the day was renamed “Dollard des Ormeaux Day.” Dollard died in 1660 after heroically throwing a powder keg into a tree, and it bounced back, killing everyone in the fort, himself included. The Iroquois won.

Dollard still gets a street, a town, and a statue to celebrate him, because well – who knows? Some say he saved what later became Montreal. The Quebec government didn’t say a word about the keg when they changed the holiday a few years ago. May 24th is now known as Patriots Day.

I’m not saying we should give up the day off, but why do the rest of us still celebrate her birthday? Why do we all get a day off in her honour? She died in 1901! And it was under her name that residential schools were created. Like Dollard des Ormeaux, her statues are everywhere - there are 3 in Quebec alone.

Tomorrow is July I, Canada Day, our national holiday. Except in Montreal, when it’s Moving Day! A.k.a “Help Yourself To All The Stuff Left On The Curb Day”. Again, the holiday is fine - the reason for it is, well, distinct. La Fête Nationale is celebrated - everyone wears blue and white T-shirts and flies Quebec flags. Everywhere else, Canada Day parades can feel a bit pathetic, like people are trying too hard.

But now that may be changing - the Canadian anthem is kinda cool, Canada is in! Too bad it took Trump’s threats of making us the 51st state for it to happen. The Canadian anthem was even sung in Boston by American fans during a hockey match. Canadians got all verklempt: “They like us, they really like us!”

In the end, we treat Canada Day a bit like Quebec treats May 24th and July 1st: we take the holiday and ignore the significance. Unlike Quebec, we don’t pretend the day is something else, but maybe it’s shifting. I now live in Montreal, where Canada Day is easily ignored and Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day is not. It occurs to me that’s Canada too? Living together in parallel.

The rest of the country mostly loves Canada, even if we can’t say why. Tomorrow, I will think about Canada and how lucky I am to live here. I might even learn the words to the anthem.

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