This Land

On Canada Day, I served as emcee and entertainer at a nearby community festival. The "Neighbours Together" festival took place near Toronto's East Chinatown, where we live. It was mostly a Chinese event, but a few non-Chinese performers had been invited as well, including me and, as it turned out, Elvis. (Full name, "George Elvis".)

I offered to sing "O Canada" live, but a tape was already cued up for that purpose. If I was going to sing anything to specifically honour my country, I'd have to do it in my set. I thought about my original repertoire. A few of the songs have specifically Canadian references, but "Yes It's Cold In Winnipeg" didn't seem to suit the 32 degree heat.

I settled on "This Land is Your Land", the Canadian version ("from Bonavista to Vancouver Island") and was pleased that many people in the audience seemed to know it, no matter what their country of origin.

As I introduced the song, I said that the song was written in the United States by a songwriter named Woody Guthrie, but that a second set of lyrics had been written for Canadian audiences. Later, my husband told me he heard a teenage boy mutter to his friend: "Listen to her, singing an American song on Canada Day". Apparently they shut up when they heard the Canadian place names, but it was an interesting point.

It hadn't even occurred to me not to sing the song because it had been written in another country. It occurred to me to sing the song because it's a beautiful song everybody knows, one which underlines the importance of taking care of the land itself and which emphasizes the idea of community.

I was glad I could sing such a song.