A happy and grateful Canada Day to all our readers which I prefer to call Dominion Day, as signifying more fully our allegiance to our king – or, as we now have, queen – for Canada is, after all, a constitutional monarchy, and our leader is the Sovereign of Great Britain, with the Prime Minister governing at his, or her, bequest, via the Governor General. But, more to the point, a Dominion signifying our deeper allegiance to the ‘King of Kings, and Lord of Lords’, Iesus Christus Dominus Noster.
Hence, the British anthem, I Vow to Thee, My Country, with music by Gustav Holst (1914-16), from his suite, The Planets, and the words a poem by Sir Cecil Spring Rice, from 1908 or 1912, to show his own loyalty both to earth and to heaven:
And why don’t we also add the original version of O, Canada, which was written in French, in Quebec – Canada was French before she was also English – for the 1880 Saint Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony, commissioned by the Lieutenant-Governor, Théodore Robitaille, with music by Sir Rudolphe-Basile Routhier, and original French lyrics by Calixa Lavallée. Note, in those original lyrics, the militant Christian theme – note the almost-never-sung latter verses, of knowing how to bear the sword and carry the cross, with valour soaked by faith.