The proposal approved by 225 votes against 74 changed two words in the Canada's national anthem: the verse “True patriot love in all thy sons command” changed to “True patriot love in all of us command”.
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For the Minister of Equality Patty Hadju, the importance of this decision makes it “a very strong symbol of our commitment to gender equality in our country".
The liberal government of Justin Trudeau, elected last October, made a difference by presenting for the first time as many women as men in the 30 ministerial portfolios.
The proposal to change this part of the hymn has come up several times in the last 25 years, as well as others to remove the religious burden present in other stanzas.
A curious fact is that the Canadian anthem has two versions (in English and French, the country's official languages) that do not coincide in terms of lyrics. Despite dating back to the beginning of the century, it was only in 1980 that it was made official as a national anthem. While the French version is the original from 1908, the English translation underwent some changes throughout the century.
