A Swedish couple reacts to - The Bizarre History of Oh Canada!

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:12]Hello, it's me Ricky together with >> Carol.

[00:00:16]Why are you laughing?

[00:00:17]>> I don't know. We're going to check out the history of O Canada or the bizarre history of O Canada.

[00:00:24]>> And I don't know how it becomes bizarre, but we're going to find out.

[00:00:28]>> Mhm. Oh, Canada is is of course the national anthem of Canada. I just want to get that out there. So, if anyone didn't know that. Uh, and we have gone into Canada a bit when it comes to reactions and >> and uh that's so cute. She comes down.

[00:00:44]>> Uh, and u if you're Canadian, say hi in the comments.

[00:00:50]>> It's on a channel called Canadana.

[00:00:55]>> Canadian.

[00:00:56]>> Canadana.

[00:00:56]>> Canadana. Kenna Diana >> or Kenna Diana. It could be that too.

[00:01:00]>> Yeah.

[00:01:00]>> Uh either way, uh you find the link for the channel and for the video we're about to watch will be located in our description. Go there and check them out and support them. If you do enjoy this, like and subscribe. That's something that we would greatly appreciate.

[00:01:16]>> Thank you.

[00:01:17]>> Yeah.

[00:01:17]>> Yeah.

[00:01:18]>> Yeah. I'm curious.

[00:01:20]>> Oh [ __ ] Here we go.

[00:01:24]>> Okay. Bizarre.

[00:01:28]This is 1968, the Sanjan Baptiste parade in Montreal.

[00:01:34]That year, the celebration of Quebec's national holiday descended into a bloody riot.

[00:01:44]The violence began. I think that there was a huge problem with the ones that wanted to have like Quebec French wanted to be their own. they didn't want to be part of. So there's all Yeah.

[00:01:56]>> But why is the the the >> guests of honor being pelted by a hail of rocks and bottles >> and in the middle of it all, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, the target the protesters are aiming for.

[00:02:11]And in less than 24 hours, he will be elected prime minister of Canada for the first time. But even more unexpected than the story of the riot that happened here is the connection it has to a song you might know.

[00:02:30]Our national anthem. So let's dive into the bizarre history of O Canada. A tale of two solitudes woven over hundreds of years. To do that, we'll need to go back to the beginning. To a time before the riots in Montreal, before the decades of unrest in Quebec, before Confederation itself, to a time long before O Canada was written. This is Canadiana.

[00:02:58]>> Whoa.

[00:03:00]>> Wow, that's a really good intro.

[00:03:02]>> Yep. And I think I've seen this >> 1646.

[00:03:12]This spot on the banks of the St. Lawrence River looked very different than it does today. That's Quebec City over there. But back then it was a brand new town of just about 30 houses. Those first few French settlers had come a long, long way to start their new city.

[00:03:28]This land had been home to indigenous nations for thousands of years. But to the French, this was a strange and wild place on the very edge of their empire.

[00:03:39]Their first winter here, nearly all of the original settlers died. Surrounded by danger, they took comfort in the traditions they brought with them across the ocean. On a summer night in 1646, there were bonfires lit by the first governor of New France, a Jesuit missionary who read prayers and cannons were fired in honor of St. John the Baptist, Sanjan Baptist. The French had been celebrating Sanjan Baptiste for more than a thousand years. But in Quebec, it would take on a unique importance. And without it, O Canada wouldn't exist. But to understand why, it helps to fast forward 200 years. And to head over there into the city itself.

[00:04:21]By the end of the 1700s, Quebec City was home to thousands of people. The colony had been conquered by the British and over the course of the 1800s there were violent clashes between anglopones and franophones. Rebels tried to overthrow Quebec's British government. Franophones were demonized by prejudiced conservatives. There were riots, gunfights, and executions. Blood ran in the streets. And when Quebec joined Confederation, many worried that French Canadian culture was in more danger than ever before. Sanjan Baptiste had become deeply political. One of the rebels even founded a Sanjan Baptist society.

[00:05:00]1880 was going to be an especially important year. The society was bringing franophones together for the first ever national congress of French Canadians.

[00:05:09]And to mark the special occasion, they were going to commission a special song, an anthem. To write it, they teamed the city's best musician up with its most prolific writer. This is Kixa Lavalet, who wrote the music. And this is Sir Adolf Basil Hutier who wrote the original French lyrics. Lavalet was known as Canada's first national musician. But his compositions had wowed audiences from New York to Paris. He'd even found himself fighting in the infamous Battle of Antidum, still the bloodiest day in American history. The man who wrote the music for O Canada was a veteran of the American Civil War. On the other side, Yuch the lyricist who preferred to stay home and write poetry.

[00:05:57]Valet was a liberal. When he wasn't busy writing music about butterflies, he was composing satirical operas about colonialism. Huier was a deeply religious conservative. As a judge on Quebec's Supreme Court, he declared that it was perfectly fine for priests to tell their parishioners that if they didn't vote for the conservatives, they would burn in hell. You can still find his religious views in O Canada to this day. Just take a look at the lyrics he wrote.

[00:06:33]Canada is personified as a flower wreath god holding a sword in one hand and a cross in the other. But the music of O Canada was an entirely different matter.

[00:06:44]Lav valet made his melody by taking bits and pieces from other tunes. For instance, from a popular French folk song called the beautiful snow.

[00:07:06]Oh my god, that's so good.

[00:07:07]>> Importantly, Laval took some of his melody from one of the most popular musical compositions of the time, Mozart's The Magic Flute.

[00:07:19]>> Ooh.

[00:07:20]>> It was an opera that was famously critical of organized religions. The new anthem was a strange and >> okay >> that is the I am so overwhelmed with knowledge now.

[00:07:34]I love I love this because I can just sit on the couch at work and just say, "Hey, do you guys know about the song O Canada? How that they just look at me like why do you know stuff like that?"

[00:07:45]And I said, "I don't It's just I love that. It's just it's a I'm call it curiosa because it's something that people don't know but I'm sitting with knowledge saying that did you know that okay just a cool >> controversial mix both religious and secular kind of the perfect soundtrack to a sacred holiday that was becoming more and more political and so it was on this spot that O Canada was performed for the very first time between the city's old stone walls and the brand new parliament buildings just under construction ction. The Sanjan Baptiste Society held their Sanjan Baptist Day event here in a hockey arena.

[00:08:26]It was a great day for French Canadian culture. But over the next 80 years, French English tensions would be brought to a boiling point until this same holiday would be celebrated by throwing rocks at Pier Trudeau.

[00:08:44]Separatism was on the rise, demanding independence for the province.

[00:08:51]To a separatist, Trudeau was a traitor, a franophone running for prime minister who believed in the idea of a united Canada. When he showed up at the Sanjan Baptiste parade on the final night of his campaign, people were enraged. This was Quebec's day, a day to celebrate their own separate identity. Voices from the crowd chanted Trudeau to the gallows. and it was no idle threat. That spring, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. had both been assassinated. In Quebec, separatist terrorists had already carried out deadly bombing campaigns. But as the protesters began to throw rocks and bottles, Trudeau didn't back down. While other dignitaries scattered, he refused to leave. They say that moment helped to win him the election. Anglophones had been slow to trust him, but they loved to see Trudeau pissing off the separatists. The parade descended into chaos. Hundreds were arrested. Things only got worse from there. Two protesters, Paul Ho and Jacqu Loto, met for the first time that night in the back of a police van. They soon became leaders of the separatist FLQ terrorist group. Just two years after the big riot, Ho and Longto helped to organize the October crisis. A British diplomat was kidnapped. A provincial cabinet minister was murdered. And Pierre Trudeau, now the prime minister, declared martial law.

[00:10:13]>> How far would you go with that? How far would you extend that?

[00:10:15]>> Well, just watch me.

[00:10:18]Oh.

[00:10:21]>> The battle between separatism and federalism became one of the defining issues of Trudeau's time in office here in Ottawa. Faced with a splintering country, Trudeau was determined to give Canada a stronger sense of its own identity. But more than a hundred years after Confederation, the country still didn't have its own national anthem. And in the century since O Canada had been commissioned for Sanjan Baptiste, it had caught on with English-speaking Canadians, too. It helped that the English lyrics were completely different from the original French. Practically the only thing the two versions have in common are the words, "Oh, Canada." Mhm.

[00:10:58]And when King George stood at attention for O Canada during an official event, it became a weird hybrid, a Kebekqua anthem symbolically approved by the ruler of the British Empire. It was a song for those who believed in a multicultural society, but getting it approved by Parliament was still a pain in the ass. More than a dozen times they tried and every time they failed. As Trudeau pushed for O Canada, Renee Lec the separatist premier of Quebec made San Jean Baptist Daye the official national holiday of the province. As Trudeau fought for unity, Lec was preparing a referendum for Quebec to leave Canada.

[00:11:35]>> Everything came to a head on a spring day in 1980. All across Quebec, voters headed to the polls to decide whether or not they still wanted to be Canadians.

[00:11:44]When the results came in, the separatists had lost. Quebec would remain part of Canada. Trudeau seized the opportunity.

[00:11:53]>> It was here in the Parliament buildings behind me that the National Anthem Act was finally passed during the week of Sanjan Baptist Day in 1980. A week later, just a month after the failed referendum, Canadians gathered here on Parliament Hill to celebrate Canada Day.

[00:12:11]And the old anthem of Quebec's national holiday was performed as Canada's national anthem for the very first time.

[00:12:24]But that wasn't the end of the story.

[00:12:29]Oh, Canada was born to be the soundtrack of Quebec nationalism, but Trudeau had transformed it into the anthem for the entire country. So, Quebec needed a new song.

[00:12:42]>> This is where Paul Serena used to stand in Montreal. And on that night in 1980, the night the referendum failed, Renee Lec was here. As it became clear the quest for independence had fallen short, at least for now. He stepped out on a stage in front of a disappointed crowd of more than 5,000 people. Some were crying, some were flying the fli. They gave him an emotional ovation that lasted more than 5 minutes. And then they started singing. It was a song called Jee written by separatist folk singer Ju Vin who first performed it on San Jean Baptiste. 100 years after O Canada was first performed, thousands of defiant voices were singing a new anthem. It was the VC said the most beautiful moment of his life.

[00:14:09]Is it over?

[00:14:10]>> And this is for O Canada. I really wasn't kidding when I said that anglophones and franophones are singing two very different national anthems. Uh so for instance when anglophones are singing about glowing hearts, franophones are singing about swords, anglophones stand on guard for the franophones stand on guard for our rights. Uh we shared more about the lyrics of O Canada on the Canadiana blog which you can read by clicking right down here. And if you'd like to know more about the bizarre history of O Canada and all the most incredible stories in Canadian history, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. We're @ This is Canadiana.

[00:14:48]You'll find links in the descriptions below.

[00:14:51]If you like this video and you'd like to watch more, you can subscribe. We have many more amazing stories to tell, and to do it, we'll need your help. You can support us by becoming a patron on Patreon or through a one-time donation on PayPal. Thanks so much for watching.

[00:15:07]I'm Adam Bunch. I'll see you next time on Canadiana.

[00:15:12]>> Okay. So, but I am a little bit confused now.

[00:15:16]>> Okay.

[00:15:17]>> Uh is it still like uh old Canada? Is that song the same in the old country?

[00:15:26]>> It's it's the song we hear now is the is the old Canada version with with I stand on guard for thee. But is it still >> I don't I don't I don't think so. I mean it's a unified country today.

[00:15:39]>> Yeah.

[00:15:40]>> Uh but I do believe that if you look at Quebec today, I do believe that might be people still want it to be like a separate thing.

[00:15:47]>> It's a question for you guys because um yeah, I want to know more. I want to >> if you check in, we got basically the same thing in Sweden when you talk about southern Sweden which is Scania. Um, we never really thought that we belong to the rest of the country.

[00:16:09]There's like uh there were movements during the 70s and 80s that wanted to kick Scania out from Sweden and Scania wanted to get out from Sweden. Uh, and it's just this is a weird thing.

[00:16:22]>> Wasn't it wasn't Scania belonged to Denmark?

[00:16:26]>> Half of half of Scania was belonged No.

[00:16:29]No. No. half of but if if Sweden is here uh and here here by my elbow is Scania here. So the Danish king owned everything down here.

[00:16:39]>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:40]>> So it's always over to Holland or Smallland.

[00:16:44]>> Oh okay.

[00:16:44]>> So was the king the Danish Danish king uh King Christian he was >> all the way up here. Uh this was uh maybe like 14 15 1600 maybe I think. So >> okay. Uh but either way, uh I do believe that if you look at can Canada today, it's unified. But then again, I don't know.

[00:17:07]>> No, that that I'm I'm just curious because it it ended like it was a >> kind of still very uncertain, but I don't know.

[00:17:16]>> I don't think so. But I'm not Canadian.

[00:17:18]So, if you can help answer that question, that would be cool. Um I know about this story. I've seen this video before. Uh it's one of the the greats the is one of the best documentary I've seen. It's informative. It's uh I'm going to check out two new songs.

[00:17:38]>> But I want you guys to put down what we should hear because I want to hear this the the national anthem. What is the best way to do that? Is that like different singers we need to check out or is it like some kind of versions?

[00:17:55]>> Yeah.

[00:17:56]>> So, let us know because I really want to hear it now. But I want to do it with you guys, not on my own because it's more fun like that.

[00:18:03]>> Definitely. Definitely.

[00:18:05]>> Yeah. Help us out with that one if you want to. If you want to check it out by yourself, link for the channel and for the video we just watched will be located in the description. Go there and give them the support that they so much to serve. one of the best documentary channel on YouTube without a doubt.

[00:18:19]>> I think that they having won awards and stuff like that. So, >> oh, >> if you did enjoy the reactions with Wrecky and Carol, uh, show us by hitting the like and if you're new to the channel, don't forget to hit subscribe.

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[00:18:52]The comment section while I'm talking about you writing in our comment section. Keep being nice to us and to each other. The world needs kindness.

[00:19:01]>> Rather doubt.

[00:19:02]>> Well, that's it.

[00:19:04]>> That's it.

[00:19:05]>> I am WKY >> and I am Carol.

[00:19:08]>> You >> stay safe.