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<\/p>\nI’m extremely proud to be a Canadian citizen, even though until two days ago I had absolutely no clue that I am.<\/p>\n
I’ve had a love affair with Canada and Canadians for my entire life. My mother was Canadian, one of my first girlfriends was Canadian, my booze of choice is Canadian whiskey and even my horse when I was a kid was a Canadian horse. I grew up on a Montana farm only 30 miles from the Alberta border and my grandparents and many other relatives were Albertans so at times while growing up I spent almost as much time in Canada as I did in the U.S.<\/p>\n
Besides my personal connections to Canada, I love their culture and their people. Canadians are more friendly, more peaceful and more receptive to different ethnicities and cultures than we are. They’re also less polarized and less religious than their southern neighbors, both of which have immense appeal for me.<\/p>\n
There have been two periods in my adult life when I’ve seriously considered moving to Canada and I’m going through one those periods now – even though I know for fact that I’m too damned old to be pulling such shenanigans as moving across the street, much less to another country. But I’ve always figured that since my mother was a Canadian citizen when I was born, it might be easier for me to get Canadian citizenship than it would for most folks. So for years I’ve had sporadic daydreaming episodes of gaining dual citizenship. And maybe even someday, doing something about it.<\/p>\n
Following is the story of my family as it relates to my citizenship. It’s complicated and convoluted but if you can get through it, you should have a reasonably coherent concept of why I’m so excited about a discovery I made two days ago.<\/p>\n
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The young lady on the left is my mother in September of 1941, not long after she graduated from high school. The rest of the folks in the photo are her parents (my grandparents of course) and her four younger siblings. Yes, her two oldest brothers were tall basketball players. They’re standing in front of their farmhouse on the outskirts of tiny Glenwood, Alberta where they lived and where all the kids were born. So, my mother was a Canadian citizen.<\/p>\n
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My Dudley grandparents and young uncle Floyd in Colorado in 1919. Grandma was pregnant with my dad when the photo was taken. Dad was born in this house.<\/em><\/p>\n By the early 1900’s my dad’s family had moved from Utah to (also tiny) Hill Spring, Alberta, only six miles down the road from Glenwood, so the Dudley’s were American citizens living in Canada. To make the story even more convoluted, in 1919 they moved to Grand Valley, Colorado, for one year only, before they moved back to Hill Spring. Dad was born in 1920 while they were still in Colorado. So, for both reasons, he was an American citizen.<\/p>\n In the early 1940’s mom and dad ended up falling in love but they very reluctantly put off getting married until he returned from WWII. After being involved in the invasion of Okinawa and the war ending, Dad spent a year on occupation duty in Korea so he didn’t get home until April of 1946. Within days of his return they were married and thirteen months later, in May of ’47, I burst onto the scene.<\/p>\n In 1929-30 dad’s father had purchased a farm 17 miles northwest of Cut Bank, Montana which is only 100 miles southeast of Glenwood and Hill Spring, Alberta. Dad ended up buying half of that farm from his father and that’s where we all lived while I was growing up – a happy farm family. I was born in the Cut Bank hospital and mom became a naturalized American citizen in the early to mid 50’s. I clearly remember her studying for and passing her naturalization test. It was a very big deal for all of us.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n OK, that sets the stage for what happened two days ago.<\/p>\n In my despair over the current discord and dysfunction in our country I began to research what it would take for me to gain Canadian citizenship, even though I knew full well that at my age I almost certainly wouldn’t be moving there no matter what I found during my research. I just thought that having dual citizenship might give me some semblance of peace of mind (that may or may not make sense to you). I fully expected it to be a wild goose chase – that I would have no easy or practical path to Canadian citizenship.<\/p>\n So I was surprised and delighted to discover that I’m already a Canadian citizen! When I used “if my mother was a canadian citizen when I was born, do I have dual citizenship” as a google search term, this is the first link that came up in my search results<\/a><\/span><\/span>. The first words I read were:<\/p>\n “Under recent amendments to Canada\u2019s Citizenship Act, nearly all persons whose parent was born or naturalized in Canada are now Canadian citizens. This is true even if your parent left Canada as a child; married an American citizen (or other non-Canadian); or became a U.S. citizen (or citizen of another country). There is no age limit on claiming your Canadian citizenship.”<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n My jaw literally dropped. I’m already<\/em> a Canadian citizen and further research, including research of Government of Canada websites, confirmed it. In order to prove it I need to apply to the Canadian government for a Certificate of Citizenship, which I intend to do, but I’m already a Canuck.<\/p>\n Will I move to Canada? Probably not, but I’m sure as hell happy “aboot” being Canadian. Somehow, it makes me feel more civilized.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m extremely proud to be a Canadian citizen, even though until two days ago I had absolutely no clue that I am.<\/p>\n