Another Loser Anthem

By David Topping

The winner of CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada Anthem Challenge was announced tonight, and it’s not that kid from Toronto, that savant from Aurora, or that conflict-of-interest-y guy: it’s “Canadian Gold” by Albertan music teacher Colin Oberst! (No relation.) The song’s not bad, but its win over 14,000 other anthems demonstrates that what the CBC—and, we guess, the Canadian public, who picked this song out of the final five— really wanted to replace one of our country’s iconic songs was something safe, a little on the dull side, and more than a little generic. We’re sure that CTV is pretty happy about the whole thing, though.