One surprise from the Conservative government's throne speech that raised eyebrows, between the expected promises to pursue balanced books and "tough on crime" bills, was a proposal to tweak the wording of "O Canada."
A sentence in the 6,000-word speech, which was delivered Wednesday afternoon by Governor General Michaelle Jean, said the Conservatives would ask Parliament "to examine the original gender-neutral English wording of the national anthem."
The line in question is: "True patriot love in all thy sons command."
Under the Conservatives' proposal those words would revert to an earlier version of the anthem written by Stanley Weir in 1908.
"True patriot love thou dost in us command," the line by Weir reads.
Janet Keeping, president of the Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership in Calgary, said that making the lyrics gender-neutral would better reflect "modern Canadian life," and the role of women in it.
"Be it from the glorious Games to the killing fields of Afghanistan, we see that women are side by side with their male counterparts, showing that patriotic love, making those sacrifices," Keeping told CTV News Channel.
"We know that that language was not meant to include all of us," she said. "I would just change it to, 'In all of us command,' and be done with it."
However, it remains to be seen whether the proposal will gain enough political support to be enacted.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's reaction to the idea was mixed.
"It would be good for us to get gender-neutral language," he told CTV's Power Play. "We of course support it. But if you want to do something for women, can we get families some child care?"
Adopting gender-neutral language is an example of "symbolic politics that doesn't actually address the issues that Canada faces," he added.
The throne speech didn't indicate where the idea to change the lyrics originated.
"O Canada" was adopted as a national anthem on July 1, 1980. The music was written by a well-known composer named Calixa Lavallee in the late 1800s. The original lyrics were drawn from a poem by Judge Adolphe-Basile Routhier.
