Arts and Entertainment

Leisa Way teams up with 89-year-old songwriter to create Canadian tribute

May 8, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Songbird Leisa Way is excited about a new song for Canada, written by Ellis Craig, a man who began his life as a songwriter in his 80s.

His song, “We Are Canadian! As One We Stand” is a tribute to Canada, its history and who we are – Canadians.

In a brief telephone interview with Craig this week, he told the Citizen the story of how he met Leisa Way and Bruce Ley, who has been her collaborator for the shows she has written and performed for years. The meeting in Morrisburg, where Way was performing her “Early Morning Rain” show, came about through a mutual acquaintance. 

“Morrisburg was very, very good,” Craig recalled. “I had a nice interview with her and her guitarist and Bruce.”

That meeting led to many hours of recording and finishing the song for eventual release. There were two other versions of the song which were posted online, one sung by Carey Blackwell, who also wrote the music and later by Alan Sandeman. That one boasts 209,000 hits to date, Craig told the Citizen. There have been “all kinds of compliments of ordinary Canadians” but Ellis has big ambitions for his song. He is looking for a big name in the music industry – “Bublé or Twain,” he says. His ultimate goal is to have his Canadian song sung at the Canada Day celebration on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. He reasons there would be more interest in it if a famous person was singing it.

Leisa Way talked about meeting Ellis Craig and what followed as she and Ley took up the song, and with a degree of Ellis’ own ambition, re-recorded it at his request and commission.

Speaking from her Orangeville home, Way was enthusiastic about the song, a fresh song for Canadians to sing, to make them feel proud to be Canadians. She admired Craig’s life and career with the RCMP, where worked on the drug task force in Perth, Ottawa and Hamilton.

“He wanted it sung at Parliament Hill but it was submitted too late,” she said, suggesting it could happen maybe next year. Way did get in touch with the director of Capital Celebrations at Canadian Heritage.

“Hoping for next year, Ellis’ birthday,” is the wish.

“I love the song,” Way confirmed.

Originally, the song had 12 verses but those have been reduced to six.

Craig on his own is making a video of the song, with the music accompanied by a series of gorgeous Canadian photographs. Way is helping him choose which ones he can use in cases of copyright.

Hopeful with this song, Craig approached Way about recording and producing the song and her approach to it was: why don’t we release it? Let’s just get it out there. You can hear the heart of Canada beating.

“I knew more about getting this out there than he did – a song that Canadians should hear,” Way remarked. “I kind of feel as though it was meant to be.”

Brant Garratt was their first choice to sing “We Are Canadian! As One We Stand.” Thirty years and a rising singer, Garratt was the perfect pick to make this song stand out. There was a whole day of recording, followed by many hours as Way and Ley worked together, listening to every single instrument; of 12 tracks; they listened to all of them separately but she told the Citizen, “Bruce and I had such a lot of fun.”

So, the song has been engineered by Bruce Ley Studio. Ley arranged, mixed and played all the other instruments. He was the sound engineer, did the mix and mastered the recording, which was recorded at his studio.

This was the first time the two worked together on such a project. Way was delighted to have had the chance to learn as much as she did and go through the process of creating a finished piece of music.

Craig has also written songs about Newfoundland and Brant Garratt wants to write the music for Ellis’ maritime songs; a musical relationship between a 30- and 89-year-old.

“At this time in Canadian history, this the first time I felt there was risk on Canadian democracy. I need to hear this song that started as a one-off thing. We all put everything into it because we wanted him to have the best version of the song we could make,” said Way.

Ellis Craig told the Citizen he has a positive feeling about it. He is working on a song about Canadian Snowbirds – the flight team – not Canadians going south, was the humorous clarification.

He said, “Other countries have national songs. In Canada, there was a void to be filled and I wanted to do that.”

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