> On Thu, 19 Nov 1998 08:21:19 -0500 Ralph Baer wrote:
>
> > One question for Canadian readers out there.  When was "O Canada"
> > adopted as the national anthem?  My recollection is that "God Save
> > the Queen" was still used when I was young.  It might be that RPI
> > only started playing the Canadian anthem when it changed (either
> > that or I didn't realize that "My Country Tis of Thee" was being
> > played because the same tune was the Canadian National anthem.)
>
> This is just a guess from someone south of the border.  When the dominion
> celebrated its centennial in 1967 they adopted the maple leaf as its flag;
> it used to be a variation on the Union Jack.  I think that's the same year
> they adopted the new anthem.
 
Not quite. The Maple Leaf flag was adopted in 1965, two years before the
Centennial.
 
"O Canada" officially became the national anthem in 1981. Before that, it was
considered the unofficial national anthem, much like the "Star Spangled Banner"
was in the US before its official adoption. The notable thing about the official
approval of "O Canada" was that some of the words (of the English version at
least) were changed. (It's also interesting to note that the English and French
versions of the song say different things.)
 
"God Save the Queen" is Canada's Royal anthem. It is now sung only occasionally,
at graduations, convocations and other ceremonies. Nothing is quite as amusing
as a group of people belting out "O Canada" at the start of the ceremony, and
having a bunch of humming where "God Save the Queen" should be at the end. :-)
 
Returning this thing to its original topic, I must admit to being genuinely
surprised that all or most ECAC schools play both anthems all the time. I knew
from experience that Clarkson and SLU did, but I assumed that that was due to
their proximity to the Canadian border (i.e. sucking up to Canadian fans :-) ).
 
See you later,
John
 
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