# Do Other Countries Have a Pledge of Allegiance? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 10, 2001, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604 "2001-10-10T17:07:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/21 "2001-10-12T14:16:46Z")
“Global assimilation” is the dictionary meaning of “happineff”. The secret agenda of the Illuminati is revealed. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/22 "2001-10-12T15:58:47Z")
> [@](#): > > “Global assimilation” is the dictionary meaning of “happineff”. I’m pretty sure the dictionary meaning of “happineff” is “global affimilation.” You stand corrected. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/23 "2001-10-12T16:09:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mhendo \* > \*\ ***skogcat** was not totally correct about Australia. It is true that there is no Pledge of Allegiance taught to Australian citizens the way that the US Pledge is taught to schoolchildren etc. in America. There is, however, a pledge that is taken by those who have immigrated to Australia and wish to become Australian citizens. > > \*\* Yes and NZ has a similar thing for new citizens but this is not really in the same category as the US P of A. For instance I don’t know anyone who actually knows the NZ pledge unless they’ve learned it through curiosity or they’ve been in a situation where they’ve been required to say it. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/24 "2001-10-12T16:18:07Z")
Mangoldm: Perhaps you’re merely asking if any other country has a pledge of allegiance to their flag? ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/25 "2001-10-12T16:21:59Z")
\> Do Other Countries Have a Pledge of Allegiance? No, and therein lies the problem. If the whole world pledged allegiance to the flag of the USA and the Republic it represents, we would not be having so many international problems. If Bin Laden would have been brought up reciting the pledge of allegiance things would be very different today. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/26 "2001-10-12T17:15:48Z")
I’ve never heard of the pledge to Australia that **The LoadedDog** remembers from school, so it may indeed be the result of an overzealous official or teacher. And i agree with **skogcat** that virtually no-one in Australia actually knows the Citizenship Pledge. Even if Australia did have a more commonly-used pledge, i think you’d have trouble getting a lot of Australians to pledge allegiance to our flag, especially as a considerable proportion of the population would like to see it changed and the union jack removed. ---
**Author:** ![ClintPhoenix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@ClintPhoenix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ClintPhoenix)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/27 "2001-10-12T19:12:59Z")
In Canada in Elementary school, at every assembly we saluted our flag, the words of which follow: I salute the flag, The emblem of my Country, To her I pledge my love, my life and my loyalty. All the pages I can find this on now say I pledge my love and loyalty, but I seem to remember having that bit in there about my life. Here is a link to the regulations for my local board of education that contains this pledge, if you need a cite: [http://www.cbe.ab.ca/ch\_supt/oppolicy/regulations/r3074.pdf](http://www.cbe.ab.ca/ch_supt/oppolicy/regulations/r3074.pdf) Clint. ---
**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2001, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/28 "2001-10-12T21:17:53Z")
Ike put “under God” in there at the time we were fighting the godless commies. It was, of course, bad enough that they wanted to take over the world, but worse than that would have been that we’d be governed by people who didn’t believe in god. Now, of course, we have declared that we DO believe in god and boy oh boy isn’t it helping us these days? “I DO believe in God, I DO believe in God, I DO, I DO I DO believe in God.” ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2001, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/29 "2001-10-13T00:21:49Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ClintPhoenix \* > \*\*In Canada in Elementary school, at every assembly we saluted our flag, the words of which follow: > > I salute the flag, > The emblem of my Country, > To her I pledge my love, my life and my loyalty. > > All the pages I can find this on now say I pledge my love and loyalty, but I seem to remember having that bit in there about my life. > Here is a link to the regulations for my local board of education that contains this pledge, if you need a cite: > [http://www.cbe.ab.ca/ch\_supt/oppolicy/regulations/r3074.pdf](http://www.cbe.ab.ca/ch_supt/oppolicy/regulations/r3074.pdf) > > Clint. \*\* Must have been a local thing, because we didn’t say it. Of course, I was in Quebec, so that might explain things. Even in Europe, though, on the military base, we didn’t have any pledge or oath. We did sing O’Canada every morning before school (and for some reason before every movie in a theatre), and if you watch TV to the end of programming you’d get to listen to it, but that’s kind of different. ---
**Author:** ![Cowboy8112](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8dc957/32.png) [@Cowboy8112](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowboy8112)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/30 "2015-07-03T03:53:07Z")
The United States is the only nation with a pledge to its Flag ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/31 "2015-07-03T04:49:43Z")
> [@ClintPhoenix](#): > > I salute the flag, > The emblem of my Country, > To her I pledge my love, my life and my loyalty. Anyone still around know if the the “her” refers to the flag or, as I would instinctively think, the country? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/32 "2015-07-03T05:35:37Z")
> [@Cowboy8112](#): > > The United States is the only nation with a pledge to its Flag Spanish soldiers swear fealty to the flag in their graduation, but as a symbol of the country. The graduation is called _jura de bandera_, pledging to the flag. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/33 "2015-07-03T05:41:26Z")
In the UK these days, the poppy serves much the same purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Foggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foggy/32/1082_2.png) [@Foggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foggy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/34 "2015-07-03T05:42:03Z")
This is a nearly 14 yo thread. **ZOMBIES** ---
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/35 "2015-07-03T10:41:03Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > These pledges were adopted in 1994, and replaced the previous pledge in which new citizens swore allegiance to the **English monarch.** Australian monarch. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/36 "2015-07-03T11:37:44Z")
> [@Bob\_Scene](#): > > I don’t get it. How can you have freedom if you don’t force all the children to mindlessly recite patriotic loyalty oaths that they’re too young to even understand? It would go more to an ongoing maintenance of a illusion of freedom the way it is used. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/37 "2015-07-03T13:58:25Z")
> [@ClintPhoenix](#): > > In Canada in Elementary school, at every assembly we saluted our flag, the words of which follow: > > I salute the flag, > The emblem of my Country, > To her I pledge my love, my life and my loyalty. > > All the pages I can find this on now say I pledge my love and loyalty, but I seem to remember having that bit in there about my life. > Here is a link to the regulations for my local board of education that contains this pledge, if you need a cite: > [http://www.cbe.ab.ca/ch\_supt/oppolicy/regulations/r3074.pdf](http://www.cbe.ab.ca/ch_supt/oppolicy/regulations/r3074.pdf) > > Clint. You didn’t say where you are, but there is nothing like that in Quebec. And while your post says you salute the flag, you don’t pledge allegiance to it. Growing up in the US, I stopped reciting the oath the day they added, “under god” to it. I still don’t understand the mentality of imposing your religious beliefs on others. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/38 "2015-07-03T16:50:38Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Growing up in the US, I stopped reciting the oath the day they added, “under god” to it. I still don’t understand the mentality of imposing your religious beliefs on others. You must be even older than I to have made a conscious choice about that in 1954. But I agree it was and is a bad inclusion to the Pledge. The other earlier change was “my flag” becoming “the flag of the United States” and later “of America” was added. A most unusual aspect was that the Pledge was originally accompanied by the Bellamy salute named after the author of the Pledge. This salute was essentially the same as the Nazi salute of arm held at an angle with palm down. That salute was changed to hand over the heart during WWII for obvious reasons. ---
**Author:** ![Kenm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bc79bd/32.png) [@Kenm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kenm)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/39 "2015-07-03T20:56:14Z")
> [@ClintPhoenix](#): > > In Canada in Elementary school, at every assembly we saluted our flag, the words of which follow: > > I salute the flag, > The emblem of my Country, > To her I pledge my love, my life and my loyalty. > > All the pages I can find this on now say I pledge my love and loyalty, but I seem to remember having that bit in there about my life. > Here is a link to the regulations for my local board of education that contains this pledge, if you need a cite: > [http://www.cbe.ab.ca/ch\_supt/oppolicy/regulations/r3074.pdf](http://www.cbe.ab.ca/ch_supt/oppolicy/regulations/r3074.pdf) > > Clint. That’s disgusting. The link, alas, does nothing in Firefox and hauls up a 404 in Safari, each of which is fitting. I remember a pledge repeated at every gathering of the Little Fascist Cub Scouts of Canada, of which I was one, that included a vow to do my duty to god and the queen. There was a dib, dib, dib, dib thing in there, too, which was a signal to those space aliens assigned to Terra that we were ready to become pod people, if we hadn’t already. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604/40 "2015-07-03T22:46:47Z")
There’s the Singapore National [Pledge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_National_Pledge). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-other-countries-have-a-pledge-of-allegiance/86604.md?page=3)