#17 Ottawa: Marching to a Different Anthem

Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong,

Under the shade of a coolabah tree.

And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled

"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me!"

As we waltzed our Matilda through Perth (Ontario that is - not Australia) towards Ottawa, I was thinking a bit about National Anthems.  Australia's, officially, is God Save the _____ (insert King Or Queen depending on the gender of the current monarch.)  Unofficially it's Waltzing Matilda.  If you listen to it, you might want to have an Aussie-to-English dictionary handy.

I had been wondering, if Canada were to have an unofficial anthem, what it might be.  There wasn't an obvious that's-it-for- sure song that jumped out at me but I settled on Land of the Silver Birch as being suitable.

Land of the Silver birch, home of the beaver,

Where still the mighty moose wanders at will;

Blue lake and rocky shore, I will return once more,

Boom de de boom de de boom boom boom.

The song was written in the Ottawa River valley in the 1920's, and we just happened to get parking near the parliament buildings right beside the Ottawa River.  Of course I had to find a version of our new unofficial anthem on YouTube and so we listened to it there by the waters where it was written.

For our prayer walk around the Houses of Parliament, I donned my official around-Canada-prayer-journey costume.  I had designed it to look like a log-rolling lumberjack from the Ottawa River.  It was smokin' hot that day but I bravely wore the touque and long-sleeved flannel shirt out of duty.

As Patty and I walked and sweated and prayed, we sang the official national anthem of Canada.  And we prayed the prayer tucked into it.  I once read the story about how the words were changed during Pierre Trudeau's reign to include the mention of God.  I'm going by memory here but a member of the committee that was deciding on the lyrics was a god-fearing man.  He spoke up with courage at the right time, the lyrics somehow made it through all the hoops of 'officialization' and we've been praying that prayer at hockey games ever since.  Because of one man truly 'standing on guard' for his country. 

So, yes, may God keep our land, glorious and free!




 

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