Canadians cannot be blamed for mumbling the words to O Canada. Clearly, we are all so confused by the correct words of the national anthem that it’s best just to pretend we know them.

People from other countries who proudly belt out their nation’s anthems likely think Canadians are either too shy to sing or have no national pride by the way we deal with O Canada.

Mostly we move our lips without sound, hoping we are hitting on the correct version. The phrasings of “God keep our land” and “From far and wide” are still mixing some people up 30 years after they replaced the original lines.

O Canada has a long history. Its roots began in 1880 when the French version was written for the Saint-Jean Baptiste Society. In 1908, Robert Stanley Weir wrote the English version.

It competed with God Save the Queen and the Maple Leaf Forever as Canada’s song until 1967 when Parliament recognized it as the de facto national anthem. It became the official anthem in 1980, when the National Anthem Act was adopted. God Save the Queen became the royal anthem.

That Act also added the religious reference of God Keep Our Land,” and the phrase "From far and wide, O Canada" to eliminate the repetitious “We stand on guard for thee.”

If that wasn’t confusing enough, along the way Weir’s original words of “True patriot love thou dost in us command” were changed to “True patriot love in all thy sons command.”

A few people, some of them feminists, have decided that reference to “sons” is sexist, which led to the Government of Canada’s most recent decision to toy with the words a little more. The throne speech of March 3 indicated Parliament would review the "original gender-neutral wording of the national anthem.”

Collectively, across the country, came the sigh, “Oh, for goodness sake’s, leave that poor song alone.” And, last week the Prime Minister’s Office indicated it got the message. In a terse press release, PM Stephen Harper told Canadians to relax. O Canada would remain as is.

One can’t be blamed for thinking that Harper tossed that little gem into the throne speech as a distraction from the rest of the speech that lacked so few details on overcoming the country’s economic woes.

If that was his intent, he certainly succeeded. Instead of asking the government for its plans for job creation, people talked about the national anthem.

So while many of our colleagues may be without work or retirement savings, at least the words to O Canada remain safe.

I like to think of myself as something of a feminist, but I’m afraid I don’t spend a lot of time feeling slighted by the words of O Canada.

It’s not that words aren’t important. Most women no longer think it’s refreshing to be called “a girl” or “girlie” as one man called our front office receptionist the other day.

We spoke up about that one for about 30 years — pointing out that “girl” means “an immature female” — and now male supervisors are generally careful about not telling people one of “my girls” will handle that.

But one word in a song with historical roots really should not offend anyone. And anyone who does feel angst at singing “in all thy sons command” should just sing “in all of us command.”

If the offended sing the anthem the way most people do no one will hear them anyway. An alternative would be to think “suns” instead of “sons” whilst muttering the words under their breath as is the Canadian way.

On that note, the federal government would be better off figuring out a way to help Canadians of all ages understand the benefits of proudly singing their nation’s anthem rather than changing the words one more time.

Susan Duncan is city editor of The Daily News. Her column appears Fridays. Email her at sduncan@kamloopsnews.ca.