[Sound of someone knocking on a door]
“Who’s there?”
“It’s The Happy Gang!”
“Well, come on in!”
I’m too young to remember The Happy Gang, a show that ran on CBC Radio for many years beginning in 1945. My Mom sure remembered it, including that cheerful introduction.
An important member of The Happy Gang was composer and trumpet player Bobby Gimby, whose song “Ca-na-da” became the signature tune of Canada’s centennial celebrations in 1967.
Gimby used to perform the song dressed as a pied piper and playing a unique jewelled trumpet with a long bell. Schoolchildren followed him in parades, singing his ubiquitous Centennial song.
(A story by St. Paul’s Paul-Emile Boisvert, which will run in our July 21 issue, mentions Gimby bringing his song to St. Paul during the centennial year.)
When I was 4 Wing bandmaster through the 1990s (and beyond), we used to play the song on parade in towns and villages all over the Lakeland—not just for Canada Day, but for fairs and rodeos and other special occasions. Adults in the crowd still recognized it, and everyone enjoyed its joyful melody.
If anyone appeared in more parades than the 4 Wing Band during those years, it was the MPs and MLAs representing the people of the region. An enduring memory formed over several years (and many parades) is the image of MP Deb Grey, wearing a bright red-and-white windbreaker bedecked with maple leaves, smiling and waving to the crowds.
Grey was the first Reform Party candidate to be elected to Parliament, and she was enormously popular in our region. In every town, on every parade, she radiated her love for Canada.
And after every parade, she made a point of finding the band members and telling us how much she loved hearing us play “Ca-na-da.”
Though the song was simple and the lyrics were more suggestive of an advertising jingle than a national anthem, it was catchy and memorable. I’m sure it still brings a smile to most of us who were around in 1967.
I may have been too late suggesting to the present-day 4 Wing Band that they might want to include the song for this year’s Canada Day parade—they’ve been busy (they’re always busy) and they might not have time to prepare it.
But if you hear it, and if the words come back to you, sing along! Its fearless optimism is contagious.