City woman composed song for Canada’s 150th birthday

Journal Staff A song that a Sarnia woman wrote that celebrates Canada’s 150th birthday received enthusiastic and sustained applause from a full house at its premier in London recently.

Journal Staff

A song that a Sarnia woman wrote that celebrates Canada’s 150th birthday received enthusiastic and sustained applause from a full house at its premier in London recently.

Ernestine Perkins’ composition “It’s Canada” was performed at the Canada 150 Celebration Choral Concert by The London Singers and Beal Secondary School Singers.

“It was amazing,” she said of the debut.

“I was so humbled and I thought, God did I really write that?”

The choral group is set to perform again in Ottawa on July 1 and has been invited back to New York’s Carnegie Hall next year for a repeat performance.

Perkins, who was born in Jamaica and emigrated to Canada in 1965, moved to Sarnia nine years ago with her Canadian-born husband Richard.

“Sarnia is a great little city,” she said. “ We wish we had ‘discovered’ it sooner!”

Perkins’ song is copyrighted and can’t be performed without permission, but she agreed to share the lyrics here with Journal readers.

IT’S CANADA

Do you hear the loon a’ crying?

Can you see the geese a’ flying?

Is the wheat and corn a’ growing on the plain?

Are the lakes with fish a’ swimming?

And the mountains tall and ringing?

Then it’s Canada, we hail you once again!

Let us celebrate traditions nurtured from our past,

Enhanced by those from many different lands.

Sure, it’s Canada we proudly stand by first and last,

To our future we will gladly join our hands.

Can you feel the winds a’ blowing,

Heralding our nation growing,

From the north to south and from the east to west?

We’ll be strong through joys or sorrows,

As we welcome our tomorrows,

Yes, it’s Canada, our home, the very best!