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From: clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke)
Newsgroups: can.general
Subject: Re: O Canada vs. New York
Message-ID: <1432@utcsri.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 25-Sep-85 08:59:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: utcsri.1432
Posted: Wed Sep 25 08:59:41 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 12:53:10 EDT
References: <347@zaphod.UUCP> <3900015@csd2.UUCP> <2537@watcgl.UUCP> <804@lsuc.UUCP> <884@utcs.uucp> <638@mprvaxa.UUCP>
Reply-To: clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke)
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 28
Summary: 

In article <638@mprvaxa.UUCP> tbray@mprvaxa.UUCP (Tim Bray) writes:
>If you want to be really nauseated, go look up the first verse in French.
>Enough to turn you into an instant separatist.

Aaargh!  When I was a kid, so long ago that people thought "God Save The
Queen" was the national anthem, when we learned "O Canada" we learned it
in both English and French.  I don't recall being nauseated, nor am I
nauseated now by what I remember of the French version.  (One consequence
of learning O.C. as a second-string anthem is that while I remember all
of G.S.T.Q., and even parts of the second verse, I only remember bits of
O.C., some bits in English and some in French.)  It's a conservative,
religious, nineteenth-century anthem -- what do you want in an anthem
written in a conservative, religious, nineteenth-century country?  At
least in French it's original.

Remember, the English equivalent to O Canada is "The Maple Leaf Forever"
-- I might have the title wrong, but you remember that stuff about Wolfe
the donkless hero and planting firm Britannia's flag? ... instant
separatism there, if you're French Canadian.  Neither of us is pure,
but *ours* contains explicitly offensive material.

Maybe I'm flaming at a straw man (sounds like fun).  If so, I apologize
for misreading Tim's message.  But people do seem to be jumping on the
old national anthem lately.
-- 
Jim Clarke -- Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4
              (416) 978-4058
{allegra,cornell,decvax,ihnp4,linus,utzoo}!utcsri!clarke