Thu Nov 24, 09:07 PM

Your reaction to our 'O Canada' story

Lisa LaFlamme, Chief Anchor & Senior Editor | CTV News
MPs are shown singing 'O Canada' prior to question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2011.
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Hi everyone,

Last night I received a flurry of Tweets on our reporting of two NDP MPs consulting a lyrics sheet during the singing of ‘O Canada' before Question Period in the House of Commons.

Our Ottawa field producer noticed the sheet of paper, held up by MPs Lise St-Denis and Djaouida Sellah during the national anthem.

Aside from the voice-over we did in last night's newscast, we posted extended video to CTVNews.ca of the MPs singing, so you could have a closer look for yourself. And to have your say.

While Twitter reaction is always great, we wanted to give you an option to air your views -- and to have more than 140 characters with which to do it.

There were several interesting points in our comments section (and people are still weighing in, by the way).

Several of you said you would be tripped up as well by the bilingual version of the anthem, which the MPs were singing.

Here are the lyrics, by the way:

Bilingual Version:

O Canada!

Our home and native land

True patriot love in all thy sons command.

Car ton bras sait porter l'épée,

Il sait porter la croix!

Ton histoire est une épopée

Des plus brillants exploits.

God keep our land glorious and free!

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

On our website, ‘Jessie' was one commenter who thought we should give the MPs a break. "While I agree they should not have needed the lyrics, with the sheet in front of you it's natural to glance at it whether needed or not."

"Doug from Whitehorse" suggested something similar: "As someone who sings for a living on occasion, I'll offer another perspective. People who aren't comfortable singing in public often need a little crutch to hold on to so they are more comfortable. Knowing the words isn't an issue if you don't sing well or think you sing well," he wrote to us.

‘Gord' wrote: "I don't think it would be that much out of the ordinary for French Canadian MPs to be unacquainted with the English lyrics of Oh Canada. Especially since I mostly flub my way through the French lyrics myself!"

But there were several tweets crying ‘shame!' and comments on our site from people who were less forgiving.

"JJ" noticed that the francophone MPs, even during the French section, were transfixed on the sheet. "This is very puzzling and disappointing for the NDP," said JJ.

"TR" said: "Every Canadian should know how to sing O Canada in at least 1 official language, if not two. I can sing it in both English and French."

"Emmers," meanwhile, suggested that perhaps the 2 MPs were trying to sing in "harmony" -- and that it wasn't simply a lyric sheet, but sheet music so they could sing their individual harmonies.

Thanks for those who weighed in, and if you haven't, you still can. Make sure you tune in tonight at 11, Daniele Hamamdjian will do a follow on this story. She approached politicians from all parties and found an interesting thing: for a classic anthem, it's strange how many people really don't know all the words.

See you tonight,

Lisa

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