I Can't Sing

I can carry a tune, I just don’t have the voice for it. In grade school, when the teachers walked around the gym listening for good singers for the school choir, I was inevitably tapped on the shoulder to go sit down. Some years I purposely made my voice go south when a listening teacher (or Mrs. Pilkey, the singing Librarian) walked by, but most years it was just my terrible voice that got me dumped.

But last night, for some reason that will probably befuddle me for decades, I was asked to kick off the singing of the national anthem at a dinner hosted by our EDA for our MP and Minister of Defence, the Hon. Gordon O’Connor.

My nerves were pretty shot. I found myself simply focussing on the words while I stared at the ground for most of it. I would hate to goof up and look like one of those singers at a baseball game who doesn’t do their homework on the lyrics.

Surprisingly, once I got going the whole room joined in and I think (or hope) that I was just another voice out of the 125 who sang along.

I do remember looking up at one point and seeing Minister O’Connor turn to face the flag that was behind me and I remember thinking “do I keep singing while I face the room or should I turn my back on everyone and face the flag two feet behind me?”. I probably made the wrong choice and just kept singing into the mic while I faced the room.

I am still not sure what the official protocol is for someone at the podium, but if I was wrong I sure picked a good time to be wrong. Sitting beside the Minister of Defence was Laureen Harper, the Minister’s wife Carol, the Minister of Finance (Jim Flaherty), the Minister of Heritage and Status for Women (Bev Oda), the Parliamentary Secretary for HRSDC (Lynne Yelich) and my ridings MPP (Norm Sterling).