OTTAWA -- Liberal MP Mauril Belanger is losing his own singing voice but that's not stopping him from trying -- for a second time -- to change the English lyrics to O Canada to make the national anthem more gender neutral. 
 
 The veteran Ottawa MP, whose vocal cords have been weakened by Lou Gehrig's disease, is determined to end the song's inference that patriotism is something felt exclusively by men. 
 
 Hence, soon after Parliament resumes work today, he intends to table a private member's bill that would alter two words, changing the second line of the anthem from true patriot love "in all thy sons command" to "in all of us command." 
 
 Belanger introduced an identical bill in the last session of Parliament; it was defeated at second reading last April by a close vote of 144-127. 
 
 At the time, MPs from all the opposition parties supported the change but almost all Conservative MPs voted against it. 
 
 With the Liberals now in the majority, Belanger should have little trouble finally ensuring that women feel equally included in the national anthem. 
 
 Passage of the bill would be a fitting legacy for Belanger, who was diagnosed just a month after the Oct. 19 federal election with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. It is an incurable, progressive, neurodegenerative disease that causes muscle weakness, paralysis and, eventually, respiratory failure. 
 
 "I remain committed to proposing this legislative initiative," Belanger said in a recent posting on his Facebook page. 
 
 "I intend to table my bill when the House of Commons resumes in late January 2016 and can expect to initiate the debate on the bill around April." 
 
 Belanger said the objective of the bill is to "pay tribute to all the women who have worked and fought to build and shape the Canada that we know today ... to at long last honour their sacrifices and contributions." 
 
 O Canada was originally composed by Calixa Lavallee in 1880, with French lyrics by Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier. 
 
 It took about 20 years for the song to surface in English Canada, where various versions of the lyrics were tried out. 
 
 Belanger has noted that his proposed change would actually return the lyrics closer to one of the versions most widely used in the early 1900s: "True patriot love thou dost in us command." That line was changed to "in all thy sons command" at the time of the First World War, presumably to honour men in the armed forces, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia. 
 
 The last time the English lyrics were changed was in 1980, when O Canada was officially adopted as the national anthem. At that time, repetitive phrases were replaced with "From far and wide, O Canada" and "God keep our land, glorious and free." 
 
 Since then, there have been at least 10 attempts to change the second line to include women -- all of which have failed. 
 
 Stephen Harper's Conservative government broached the idea in a 2010 throne speech, but abandoned it just two days later amid an angry backlash among core Tory party supporters. 
 
 In a bid to persuade Conservatives that Canadians are not averse to modernizing the anthem, Belanger last spring commissioned his own poll which suggested almost 60 per cent favour his proposed wording. All but five Conservative MPs voted against his bill anyway. ||||| Justin Trudeau’s newly elected Liberal government has been praised for overhauling Canada’s approach to immigration, the environment and relations with the First Nations. 
 
 Now it is seeking to change the country’s national anthem – but just by four words. 
 
 Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger introduced a bill on Wednesday to change two words of O Canada so it recognises the country’s women as well as its men. 
 
 If passed, the third line of the anthem will change from “True patriot love in all thy sons command” – to “all of us command”. 
 
 “With my bill, I want to pay tribute to all the women who have worked and fought to build and shape the Canada that we know today,” Bélanger said in a statement. “I want to at long last honour their sacrifices and contribution.” 
 
 Bélanger, who was recently diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease and can no longer speak, introduced the bill using an iPad speech app. “By the way Mr Speaker, it is 2016,” he said in closing. 
 
 Women’s groups have been trying to change O Canada ever since it replaced God Save the Queen as the country’s official anthem in 1980. Ten previous legislative attempts have all failed after opposition from conservatives who have variously called the move “grammatically unnecessary” or pointed out that most Canadian soldiers are male. 
 
 In 2010 the change appeared in the government’s legislative programme at the time but was dropped after backlash despite support from prominent figures, including novelist Margaret Atwood. 
 
 If the change goes ahead, it will actually be a return to the original English wording: the lyrics were only changed to focus on “sons” in 1914 as a show of support for soldiers fighting in the first world war. 
 
 The French version of the anthem does not have a similar problem, instead focusing on how the country’s “brow is wreathed with a glorious garland of flowers”. 
 
 Nancy Ruth, a Conservative senator, has long advocated a change. “For women, this will means we are included and valued for our labours in building this country. It means this for all Canadians,” she said. 
 
 Beth Atcheson of the Sing All of Us campaign urged parliament to “make the very simple and straightforward change to address a historical anomaly and ensure a gender inclusive anthem before 2017, when Canada celebrates the 150th anniversary of its founding.” 
 
 Canada is not the first country to seek to make its anthem more inclusive. In 2012, Austria changed its anthem to recognise its women, while last year Switzerland ran a contest seeking more modern lyrics for its national song. 
 
 
 
 David Kendall, a Canadian anthem expert who runs the nationalanthems.info website, said he expected the bill to pass, thanks to the Liberal Party’s majority in parliament. “There’s a small number of people here who really want it changed and a small number who don’t,” he said. “But most don’t mind what it says as long as they get to sing it at the hockey.” ||||| A renewed attempt to make the lyrics of O Canada more gender-neutral won't be supported by a newly elected Conservative MP in southwestern Ontario. 
 
 Karen Vecchio, who became the MP for Elgin-Middlesex-London last October, said she will oppose Liberal MP Mauril Bélanger's second attempt to change some of the words in the national anthem. 
 
 "I think it just opens up a can of worms that we can look at each and every line of that national anthem," Vecchio said in an interview with CBC News. 
 
 Tory MP Karen Vecchio says she will oppose Liberal MP Mauril Belanger's bid to change the lyrics of O Canada. (parl.gc.ca) 
 
 "We will be changing the entire national anthem into something that we don't even recognize," said Vecchio. 
 
 In the previous Parliament, Bélanger put forth a private member's bill seeking to change the words "in all thy sons command" to "in all of us command." 
 
 The bill was defeated at that time, but it was then supported by opposition MPs. The Liberals now have a majority government, which Bélanger is a part of. 
 
 Earlier this week, Bélanger said he would reintroduce that bill this month. He did so on Wednesday afternoon. 
 
 Vecchio said she views the anthem as a tradition that should be maintained. 
 
 "This is our national anthem, this is something that we've had for decades," she said.
– A Canadian politician is on a crusade to change the lyrics of O Canada—the Canadian national anthem—to give equal shrift to both genders, the Guardian reports. The third line of O Canada currently reads "True patriot love in all thy sons command." A bill introduced by liberal member of parliament Mauril Bélanger this week would change that to "in all of us command." "I want to pay tribute to all the women who have worked and fought to build and shape the Canada that we know today,” Bélanger says in a statement. “I want to at long last honor their sacrifices and contribution.” Who could oppose that? "I think it just opens up a can of worms that we can look at each and every line of that national anthem," conservative member of parliament Karen Vecchio tells CBC. "This is our national anthem, this is something that we've had for decades," Vecchio tells CBC. O Canada was composed in 1880 with French lyrics that didn't mention "thy sons," the Toronto Sun reports. When English speakers finally started singing it around 1900, the most common lyrics were "thou dost in us," highly similar to the proposed change. According to the Guardian, the lyrics weren't changed to "thy sons" until 1914. And other lyrics were changed to make them less repetitive when O Canada became the national anthem in 1980, the Sun reports. There have been 10 failed attempts to change "thy sons" since 1980. Bélanger himself introduced the same bill only to have it fail last April. But CBC reports it could fare better in Canada's new liberal government.