As a follow up to their “Need a Canadian Passport to open the beer fridge” stunt comes this one that is just as clever. It plays off the uniquely Canadian inability to remember the words to our national anthem. Still crappy beer though.
The “O Canada” beer fridge
Canada makes it hard to remember the words to O Canada because 1) there are both English and French versions, 2) sometimes you sing a version which switches between the English and French versions mid-song, 3) the words to the English version were changed in the 1980’s to include references to Middle Eastern religion that are wholly inappropriate in a multicultural country where not everybody follows Middle Eastern religion. So it is hard to get agreement on exactly which words to sing when you sing O Canada. Do you want to sing the original English version, the modern English version, the French version, the English/French version, or do you just want to mumble through it as best you can?
But many US Americans don’t know all the words to their national anthem either.
I love this. All the more so because I’d have fewer reasons to feel uncomfortable singing their anthem as opposed to my own.
As an American I think the Canadian anthem is great as is the American anthem. I know both and will be singing the Canadian anthem on Canada Day in Victoria and the American anthem in Washington state. Let’s not get crazy over this and just enjoy the moments. Oh, I’d rather have a LaBatts 50 over the Molson but I’d never knock a free beer.
I’m not being “crazy.” I just know one country causes far less suffering throughout the rest of the world than the other. And most of the rest of the world knows this, too.
Singing an anthem carries with it something more than the sensible contractual arrangement between a citizen paying taxes and a government providing services and protection for those taxes. I grew up having been taught to sing one of these high-minded songs, but I’m no longer comfortable with the degree to which that contract has been altered.
http://movieclips.com/dfyBr-canadian-bacon-movie-hockey-fight/
I thought they threw you out of the country for saying that.
Anyone looking for a historical lesson here: A number of things listed here are simply wrong.
The 1980 revision was:
“And stand on guard, O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.”
To: “From far and wide, O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.”