Multiple English versions ensued, with Robert Stanley Weir's version in 1908 gaining the most popularity, eventually serving as the basis for the official lyrics enacted by Parliament. Weir's lyrics have been revised three times, most recently when An Act to amend the National Anthem Act (gender) was enacted in 2018.
'O Canada' had served as a de facto national anthem since 1939, officially becoming the country's national anthem in 1980 when Canada's National Anthem Act received royal assent and became effective on July 1 as part of that year's Dominion Day (today's Canada Day) celebrations. The house where Lavallée lived in Quebec City in 1878įive years later, the Whaley and Royce company in Toronto published the music with the French text and a first translation into English by Thomas Bedford Richardson and, in 1908, Collier's Weekly magazine held a competition to write new English lyrics for 'O Canada'. Powell McCulloch, but her version never gained wide acceptance. In fact, many made English translations of Routhier's words however, the most popular version was created in 1908 by Robert Stanley Weir, a lawyer and Recorder of the City of Montreal.
