Until June of 2016, on the Government official Heritage website, the following reference was made to The Maple Leaf Forever...

Alexander Muir wrote The Maple Leaf Forever as Canada's confederation song in 1867; it was regarded as the national song for several decades.

But that’s wrong. The Maple Leaf Forever was taught in the schools of English Canada until the 1970s, which is nearly 11 decades after Confederation, rendering the Canadian Government's official record of it, woefully erroneous; several  is certainly nowhere near a correct expression to relate to 11 decades.  

So in May 2016, I wrote Heritage Minister Melanie Joly, and asked that it be corrected, as follows...

 In 1867, Alexander Muir wrote The Maple Leaf Forever as Canada's Confederation song, and until relatively recently, it was regarded as the national song.  Canada adopted its own flag in 1965, and after that, regarding Britannia’s Flag, to sing “here may it wave” was no longer valid.  Shortly thereafter, the Official Languages Act was passed, rendering singing only the praises of British conquests inappropriate, and  “The Maple Leaf Forever” was abandoned in the mid-1970s: yet the tune is still very current-Canadian. It’s the March-past for The Queen's Own Rifles, and The RCMP Musical Ride trot onto the parade ground to “The Maple Leaf Forever.”

The Heritage Minister didn’t reply, but did address the concern by removing the erroneous text, but she replaced it with nothing, rendering no record whatsoever of a song that was revered by Canadians for the first 105 years of Canada’s 150 years since Confederation.

As you will see in the version of The Maple Leaf Forever in the below video, we changed the words to the verse, putting reference to Britannia’s Flag in the past tense by changing “here may it wave” to “here once it waved”. 

I didn’t discard Britannia’s Flag because it was our flag for 98 years of the 150 since Confederation, so it had to be mentioned because you can’t change history.  To reflect the Official Languages Act, we added the Fleur de Lis, grafting it with the three British flowers to form the Maple Leaf.  Furthermore, we added a chorus in French.

In English Canada, during the first 102 years of Confederation, immigrants assimilated to align with British Canada, and 49 years ago, started by Pierre Trudeau, assimilating was discouraged, and multiculturalism promoted. 

Although I don’t disagree with promoting multiculturalism, I disagree with the part of the Trudeau Doctrine where it not only refuses to acknowledge that there is any value to our British heritage, it methodically subverts and discards it: a predicament that became chronic, which has masticated to the point where political correctness proclaims that any mention of British heritage must be negative: colonial oppression, which was set straight by diversity. 

Diversity is fine, along with, respecting our two founding heritages: not, instead of.

My request that our bilingual Maple Leaf Forever be played at the 150th Ottawa Canada Day celebration was very positively received by Conservative Heritage Minister, Shelly Glover.  However, her replacement, Liberal Melanie Joly, not only rejected it, but removed all reference to the song from the Heritage website. 

For the 150th anniversary of Confederation, Canada’s Heritage Minister removed from Canada’s Heritage website historical mention of Canada’s Confederation song: a song that was written during the year of Confederation and sung as Canada’s effective National Anthem for over a 100 years of the 150 since Confederation; a song whose patriotic thrust drove our youth to recruiting centres to enlist to fight to preserve righteousness, in which 60,000 fell in WWI, 50,000 in WWII, and 500 in Korea. 

What was sad on our 150th celebration, was that the Trudeau politically correct fallout had decreed that our British Heritage was unworthy of mention. 

But, during the 101st Vimy Ridge Month, I believe that it’s appropriate to publish in Quinte West, an area proud of its British Heritage, our video of a bilingual song that should have been played in Ottawa on Canada Day of our 150th. 

Ted Ryczko

Belleville