Needing a national song for the annual celebrations, the St. Jean-Baptiste Society considered their options. “A patriotic rallying song” was the idea, said The Canadian Encyclopedia, but there wasn’t enough time to hold a contest. It was already early in the month of June 1880, and the festival was but a few weeks away.

A young Canadian composer, Calixa Lavalée, was commissioned by Theodore Robitaille, then Lieutenant Governor of Quebec, to write the music. Another talented man, Adolphe-Basile Routhier, was given the honour of writing the lyrics for the song. The task was completed in time for the banquet on June 24th in Quebec City. The piece was performed by a brass band in front of guests Governor General John Sutherland Campbell, Marquis of Lorne and his wife, Princess Louise. The song was titled Chant National, soon to be renamed Oh Canada. Written in French, the anthem was performed regularly at events in the province of Quebec over the next twenty years.

French to English

In 1901, a version of Oh Canada was sung in English in Toronto, Ontario for the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall – the man who became King George V of England. Several different versions of the song were produced until Robert Stanley Weir, a lawyer in Montreal, wrote a poem in 1908. With a little adjustment by Weir in a few years later, his poem became the words to the national anthem we are familiar with today. During World War 1, Oh Canada became the favourite patriotic song in Canada, even more than the Maple Leaf Forever.

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