Editing O Canada (section)

===Adoption===
Prime Minister [[Lester B. Pearson]] in 1964 said one song would have to be chosen as the country's national anthem and the government resolved to form a joint committee to review the status of the two musical works. The next year, Pearson put to the House of Commons a motion that "the government be authorized to take such steps as may be necessary to provide that 'O Canada' shall be the National Anthem of Canada while 'God Save the Queen' shall be the Royal Anthem of Canada", of which parliament approved. In 1967, the Prime Minister advised [[Governor General of Canada|Governor General]] [[Georges Vanier]] to appoint the Special Joint Committee of the [[Senate of Canada|Senate]] and [[House of Commons of Canada|House of Commons]] on the National and Royal Anthems; the group first met in February and,<ref name=CE>{{Cite book|last1=Potvin|first1=Gilles|last2=Kallmann|first2=Helmut|title=The Canadian Encyclopedia|chapter=O Canada|place=Toronto|publisher=Historica Foundation of Canada|chapter-url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/o-canada|access-date=November 10, 2015|title-link=The Canadian Encyclopedia|archive-date=December 3, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203021353/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/o-canada/|url-status=live}}</ref> within two months, on April 12, 1967, presented its conclusion that "O Canada" should be designated as the national anthem and "[[God Save the Queen]]" as the [[Honors music|royal anthem]] of Canada,<ref name=DCHOCanada/> one verse from each, in [[Official bilingualism in Canada|both official languages]], to be adopted by parliament. The group was then charged with establishing official lyrics for each song. For "O Canada", the Robert Stanley Weir version of 1908 was recommended for the English words, with a few minor changes: two of the "stand on guard" phrases were replaced with "from far and wide" and "God keep our land".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kallmann|first=Helmut|title=The Canadian Encyclopedia|chapter=National and Royal Anthems|place=Toronto|publisher=Historica Foundation of Canada|chapter-url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/national-and-royal-anthems-emc/|access-date=June 25, 2010|title-link=The Canadian Encyclopedia|archive-date=January 30, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160130235241/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/national-and-royal-anthems-emc/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=DCHOCanada />

In 1970, the [[Monarchy of Canada|Queen in Right of Canada]] purchased the right to the lyrics and music of "O Canada" from Gordon V. Thompson Music for $1.<ref>{{cite book|author=Helmut Kallmann, Marlene Wehrle|chapter-url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/articles/emc/gordon-v-thompson-music|chapter=Gordon V. Thompson Music|title=The Canadian Encyclopedia|access-date=August 2, 2013|title-link=The Canadian Encyclopedia|archive-date=November 6, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106193020/https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/articles/emc/gordon-v-thompson-music|url-status=live}}</ref> The song finally became the official national anthem in 1980 with the passage of the ''National Anthem Act.''<ref name=Galbraith10/><ref name=CE/> The Act replaced two of the repetitions of the phrase "We stand on guard" in the English lyrics, as had been proposed by the Senate Special Joint Committee. This change was controversial with traditionalists and, for several years afterwards, it was not uncommon to hear people still singing the old lyrics at public events. In contrast, the French lyrics are unchanged from the original version.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/Canadiana/pf-anthem.html| title=National anthem: O Canada| date=May 26, 2004| publisher=Canoe| access-date=July 6, 2010 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20100311145403/http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/Canadiana/pf-anthem.html|archive-date=March 11, 2010|url-status=usurped}}</ref>