I'm standing at a window I'm pressed against the past I'm looking on in black and white Through the eyes of photographs And I'm falling into faces Cultivated smiles Two dimensional Je me souviens Canada Out of Gastown in the morning On a train in '69 Into the arc-weld of the rising sun We left the coast behind And the wheels rolled in a rhythm And I heard in them for the first time The endless song of traveling out of Canada Oh Canada The longest road I've known Paved with the kind of broken hearts That lead to broken homes Looking backwards I remember The cracks in all the paving stones And the distances I've traveled out of Canada Through the dog-days of the prairies The boundless sky above our heads My stepfather looked for Mounties In the streets of Winnipeg And he told them that my mother's love Had stole his heart away And we all stood there Posed for Polaroids of Canada Oh Canada The longest road I've known Paved with the kind of broken hearts That lead to broken homes Looking backwards I remember The cracks in all the paving stones And the distances I've traveled out of Canada I awoke wrapped in my mother's arms On the docks of Montreal The ships lit like Christmas And the moon a swollen ball When a sailor spoke of England I'd never felt so small I waited until the ocean Turned from emerald to grey The wind threshed the water And washed our wake away And the seagulls blew like words Back to the mouth of the St. Lawrence As we sailed out On The Empress of Canada Oh Canada The longest road I've known Paved with the kind of broken hearts That lead to broken homes Looking backwards I remember The cracks in all the paving stones And the distances I've traveled out of Canada The first country of my youth My heart was ever drawn to you Like a tongue to a broken tooth In a world where everyone was always leaving I was trying to keep my fingertips On Canada

There once was a ship that put to sea And the name of that ship was the Billy o' Tea The winds blew hard, her bow dipped down Blow, me bully boys, blow (huh) Soon may the Wellerman come To bring us sugar and tea and rum One day, when the tonguin' is done We'll take our leave and go She had not been two weeks from shore When down on her, a right whale bore The captain called all hands and swore He'd take that whale in tow (huh) Soon may the Wellerman come To bring us sugar and tea and rum One day, when the tonguin' is done We'll take our leave and go Before the boat had hit the water The whale's tail came up and caught her All hands to the side, harpooned and fought her When she dived down below (huh) Soon may the Wellerman come To bring us sugar and tea and rum One day, when the tonguin' is done We'll take our leave and go No line was cut, no whale was freed The captain's mind was not on greed But he belonged to the whaleman's creed She took the ship in tow (huh) Soon may the Wellerman come To bring us sugar and tea and rum One day, when the tonguin' is done We'll take our leave and go For 40 days, or even more The line went slack, then tight once more All boats were lost, there were only four But still that whale did go Soon may the Wellerman come To bring us sugar and tea and rum One day, when the tonguin' is done We'll take our leave and go As far as I've heard, the fight's still on The line's not cut and the whale's not gone The Wellerman makes his regular call To encourage the captain, crew, and all Soon may the Wellerman come To bring us sugar and tea and rum One day, when the tonguin' is done We'll take our leave and go Soon may the Wellerman come To bring us sugar and tea and rum One day, when the tonguin' is done We'll take our leave and go