MPs sang "O Canada" using the newly changed gender-neutral lyrics after voting to adjust the national anthem, bring it closer to the version used in 1913.

The House voted 225-74 in support of a bill by terminally ill MP Mauril Bélanger that will change the line "in all thy sons command" to "in all of us command." Bélanger was present for the vote, which will send the bill to the Senate for debate and committee study. The Senate may not deal with it until Parliament returns from its summer recess.

Changing those two words has ignited an emotional debate between those who dislike any change to the lyrics of “O Canada” and those who want to see them modernized to implicitly acknowledge women.

Many Conservative MPs oppose the change, in part because they say Canadians haven't been properly consulted. The Liberals have rushed the bill due to Bélanger's illness, holding only one hour of committee study. Bélanger was diagnosed last fall with ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. An ALS diagnosis is usually terminal within two to five years.