On Wednesday afternoon I checked in with John Oakley on Toronto's AM640 to discuss two principal topics - President Trump's first State of the Union, and the dynastic considerations of the Ontario Tory leadership - with a couple of asides about minor Kennedys and Sir Robert Borden. Click below to listen:
The big Canadian story of the day broke just after I came off air. The Senate voted to perpetrate an act of vandalism on the national anthem and change the words of "O Canada" from "True patriot love in all thy sons command" to "in all of us command". Whatever their credentials as full-strength Social Justice Wankers, Canada's politicians are no songwriters: Even if the change wasn't intended to portray us as a nation of weedy ninnies, it does. "All of us" sings feebly, because it has no consonantal heft, weakly offering the soft elision "of us" instead of the firmly voiced dental fricative and diphthong of "thy" and the hard "n" of "sons". On the broader question, as I first wrote many years ago:
If the objection is that it would be nice to have a national anthem with some mention of females, wouldn't it be easier to go back to 'God Save the Queen'?
I shall stand for the anthem but I shall never sing those bland, bloodless words - the all too predictable result of songwriting-by-committee.
I alluded obliquely to the shifting lyrics of "O Canada" at the start of our live show here, and I told the curious story of the song here.
If you disagree with any of the above and you're a member of The Mark Steyn Club, please feel free to have at it in the comments. But do remember: fidelity to our comment policy in all of us command.
If you prefer to look at me while I'm talking, you can catch me this evening, Thursday, with Tucker Carlson, live at 8pm Eastern/5pm Pacific, with a rerun at 12 midnight Eastern - and also over the weekend with the latest in our series of Sunday poems, because, as I always says, video poetry is where the big bucks are. If you prefer me in non-vision, I'll also have a special audio edition of Steyn's Song of the Week this Sunday.
For more information on The Mark Steyn Club and becoming a member, please see here - and don't forget our Gift Membership, which makes a perfect present for a pal who enjoys not just big-bucks video poetry but all the other Club features.
