--- a/test/test_writers/test_odt.py
+++ b/test/test_writers/test_odt.py
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ class DocutilsOdtTestCase(DocutilsTestSu
                     sys.stderr.write(s1)
         return WhichElementTree
 
-    def process_test(self, input_filename, expected_filename, 
+    def process_test(self, input_filename, expected_filename,
             save_output_name=None, settings_overrides=None):
         if not self.check_import():
             return
@@ -112,19 +112,22 @@ class DocutilsOdtTestCase(DocutilsTestSu
             outfile.close()
         content1 = self.extract_file(result, 'content.xml')
         content2 = self.extract_file(expected, 'content.xml')
-        msg = 'content.xml not equal: expected len: %d  actual len: %d' % (
-            len(content2), len(content1), )
-        self.assertEqual(content1, content2, msg)
+        # self.assertEqual(content1, content2, msg)
+        self.assertEqual(content1, content2)
 
     def extract_file(self, payload, filename):
+        from xml.etree import ElementTree as etree
         payloadfile = BytesIO()
         payloadfile.write(payload)
         payloadfile.seek(0)
         zfile = zipfile.ZipFile(payloadfile, 'r')
         content1 = zfile.read(filename)
-        doc = minidom.parseString(content1)
-        #content2 = doc.toprettyxml(indent='  ')
-        content2 = doc.toxml()
+        if hasattr(etree, 'canonicalize'):
+            content2 = etree.canonicalize(content1, with_comments=True)
+        else:
+            #content2 = doc.toprettyxml(indent='  ')
+            doc = minidom.parseString(content1)
+            content2 = doc.toxml()
         return content2
 
     def assertEqual(self, first, second, msg=None):