Good Day Fellow Veteran Communicator,
With almost a full-year of COVID doom & gloom behind us and with positive thoughts for better days ahead, I firmly believe it is timely to share the following accreditation and 5-minute music video written by a very patriotic 84-year RCMP veteran.
Cheers, enjoy and have a great COVID safe day,
Merv
Ellis Craig, 84, does not want to replace “O Canada” but he does want to complement it with his own patriotic song.
The Lanark Lifestyle Retirement Residence resident is a retired RCMP superintendent, but he has found a new career — as a writer of patriotic songs.
“I’d never written a song before in my life,” he said during a telephone interview in mid-December.
This song was recently composed by Ellis Craig, an 84-year-old resident of a retirement home in Perth, Ontario. Even though he had never before written a song he decided to write one when he discovered that Canada has not really had a singalong patriotic song for public events since Bobby Gimby’s “Ca-na-da!” in our 1967 centennial year. He believes that at this point in our history Canada needs a song capable of inspiring a modern Canada Day crowd to sing along with the chorus, wave small Canadian flags and openly celebrate being Canadian. Australia Day has “I Am Australian!” – Canada Day should have “We Are Canadian!”
According to the composer, the reactions of those who have been exposed to the lyrics or the video to date have been “over the top”, including a “pretty darn good!” from Anne Murray. The song seems to awaken a latent patriotism that we all possess but were reluctant to express until now, with the exception of the patriotic fervour recently generated by the success of the Toronto Raptors! He is actively endeavouring to bring the song to the attention of an established Canadian performer or group well enough known to attract an invitation from Heritage Canada to perform it on the national stage on Canada Day 2020 and/or beyond. Dream big or go home!
With its emphasis on unity, diversity and individual pride in being Canadian its time could be now!
The music for “We Are Canadian!” was composed by Carey Blackwell. On the video, the music tracks and the vocal are by Alan Sandeman.
MUSIC VIDEO URL
