Erik Millett, the principal of Belleisle Elementary School, said he was the target of more than 2,000 emails over his decision to stop the daily singing of O Canada. (CBC)

A New Brunswick principal is reflecting on his future in teaching after he became the target of national outrage for cancelling the daily singing of O Canada at his elementary school.

Erik Millett, who returned to Belleisle Elementary School on Monday, admits in an interview with CBC News that he is now questioning his own future at the New Brunswick school or even in teaching following the anthem controversy.

"I received probably over 2,000 emails, most of them hurling abuse at me, saying everything that I should be at the end of a bayonet, I should be shipped out of the country, I should be put on the front lines with the Taliban," he said.

"I bore a very heavy price for something that I think was very, very misrepresented in the media."

The full-length interview with Millett will be aired on CBC's The National on Monday night.

Anthem not only way to be patriotic

Millett told CBC News that his decision to stop the daily singing of the anthem, instead reducing it to being played monthly at a schoolwide assembly, was blown out of context. He also said it raises different views on what it means to be patriotic.

"There are many ways to demonstrate one's patriotism or one's love for a country," he said. "The anthem is one, flying a flag is another, volunteering in your community is another. I would argue that teachers and staff at my school, caring for children to make sure they don't go hungry or don't go cold or have all they need to learn, that is being patriotic.

"I think really it has nothing to do with the decision that my staff and I arrived at. It has everything to do with one person having a very driven agenda and misrepresenting what the school did in the media and the media reproducing the myth, that mythology to a point that people in this country were whipped into a hysteria."

Millett said he made the decision after receiving complaints from two parents who objected to the daily ritual for piping in the anthem over the public address system for religious reasons. The principal said he would not comment further on the religion of the parents, saying it was private.

His decision caused a firestorm as local parents lobbied to restore the anthem, the province's education minister said he believed singing of O Canada should be done regularly, and some of New Brunswick's Conservative MPs blasted the decision in the House of Commons.

After being inundated by emails criticizing the principal's decision, Zoë Watson, the District 6 superintendent, ordered that the anthem be placed back in the morning routine.

Education Minister Kelly Lamrock said he thought the anthem should be in schools, and he'd be open to revisiting that policy if it wasn't clear enough.