While it recalls the history of early explorers who were trying to discover a route across Canada to the Pacific Ocean (especially Sir John Franklin, who lost his life in the quest for the Northwest Passage), the song’s central theme is a comparison between the journeys of these past explorers and the singer's own journey across Canada. The singer ultimately reflects that, just as the quest for a northwest passage might be considered a fruitless one (in that a viable and navigable northwest passage was never found in the days of Franklin and his kind), a modern-day journeyer along similar paths might meet the same end. The song also references the geography of Canada, including the Fraser River ("to race the roaring Fraser to the sea") on the western coast, the Beaufort Sea to the north and the Davis Strait to the east. He is driving across the Prairies, allowing him to view cities behind him fall and cities ahead rise.

When Peter Gzowski of CBC's national radio program Morningside asked Canadians to pick an alternate national anthem, "Northwest Passage" was the overwhelming choice of his listeners.^[1][2]

The narrator states that he is taking "passage overland in the footsteps of brave Kelso" three centuries after. This refers to Henry Kelsey, an English explorer and trader apprenticed to the Hudson's Bay Company in 1684, who was commissioned to explore the prairies in response to the competition posed by French Traders.^[3] Rogers confessed in an interview in 1982 that during the writing of the song, he had not been sure of Kelsey's name, and had guessed it was Kelso when recording the song.^[3] The lines "To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea" and "seeking gold and glory, leaving weathered broken bones/and a long-forgotten lonely cairn of stones" commemorate the Franklin expedition.^[4]

The song appears on an album of the same name released by Rogers in 1981, and is considered one of the classic songs in Canadian music history. In the 2005 CBC Radio One series 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version, "Northwest Passage" ranked fourth, behind only Neil Young's "Heart of Gold", Barenaked Ladies' "If I Had $1,000,000" and Ian and Sylvia's "Four Strong Winds". It has been referred to as one of Canada's unofficial anthems by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper,^[5] and former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson quoted the song both in her first official address^[6] and in her speech at the dedication of the new Canadian embassy in Berlin.^[7]

The song also appeared in the final episode of the television series, Due South and has been covered in acoustic form by the British duo Show of Hands on their album Cold Frontier. Show of Hands do not perform the song a capella but use guitar and violin to provide musical backing. It also appeared on the episode "Buried in Ice" of the PBS series NOVA about the discovery of gravesites belonging to members of the Franklin Expedition. The exhumation and study of the bodies revealed that the crew of the Franklin Expedition suffered from lead poisoning, possibly contributing to the catastrophic failure of the men to survive, although a more recent study suggested zinc deficiency as a more likely cause of their deaths.^[8]

The song was used on October 9, 2007 by the BBC World Service's World Today programme during a story about the expansion of Canada's efforts to confirm its sovereignty over the arctic region through which the Northwest Passage runs.

Artist Matt James used the lyrics to accompany his illustrations for a children’s book that received a 2013 Governor General’s Literary award.^[9]

Polish shanties and folk band The Smugglers released a cover of the song in Polish on the 1990 EP "Shanties".

The Saint Patrick's Regional Secondary Men's Chamber Choir did a cover of the song during a cultural exchange event in 2006 in Vancouver, BC. ^[10]

The American quintet Bounding Main released a cover of the song on their 2006 album Lost at Sea.^[11]

UK's sea shanty band Kimber's Men released a cover of the song on their 2010 album.^[12]

Canadian Celtic punk band, The Real McKenzies, released a cover of the song on their 2017 album Two Devils Will Talk.

Canadian power metal band, Unleash the Archers, has released a cover of the song on their 2019 EP Explorers.

Canadian folk punk band, The Dreadnoughts, has released a cover of the song on their 2019 album Into The North.

American singer Judy Collins and Norwegian musician Jonas Fjeld (backed by American bluegrass group Chatham County Line) also released a cover of the song on their 2019 album Winter Stories.

Colm McGuinness of Critical Role released a folk-shanty version in 2022, and a power metal version in 2023.

The Longest Johns and El Pony Pisador released a recording of The Northwest Passage as part of their collab album The Longest Pony in March 2023. ^[13]

Experimental American Irish traditional trio Faoileán (feat. guest vocalist Jesse Hann) released a recording of Northwest Passage as part of their album Far Hills in April 2023. ^[14]

• Anthems and nationalistic songs of Canada

• A video montage on YouTube featuring the song, from The National