My Own Canadian Home

'My Own Canadian Home'

'My Own Canadian Home'. Patriotic verse known in the late 19th century as 'Canada's National Song.' It was published in 1887 in Saint John, NB, by its author, Edwin G. Nelson, a local bookseller, and was given several musical settings - the first by Nelson and another (1888) by Thomas Morley, the conductor of the Saint John Oratorio Society. Morley McLaughlin's setting was published in 1890 by the Maritime Lithography Co, Halifax and Saint John, and E. Cadwallader's appeared the same year in the Saint John Daily Telegraph. McLaughlin's proved the most popular, selling over 1.5 million copies according to an 1896 report. Widely sung in Maritime schools and played in an arrangement for band, it was reprinted several times in Saint John newspapers and was included in Whaley-Royce Edition of Select Choruses and Part Songs (Toronto 1912). Though its popularity had faded by World War II, the song was revived and adopted (17 Dec 1967) as the official song of Saint John. Another 'My Own Canadian Home,' with text and music written by the Toronto songwriter Florence M. Benjamin and arranged by Jules Brazil, was published in 1921 by the composer.