(Whooee!) JimBobby's happy as Larry that Iggy didn't win. Now, there's a little tempest in Ezra Levant's teapot over Stephane Dion's dual citizenship. JimBobby's alter ego, James Robert, has some views on dual citizenship.
Somewhere, in the whole dual citizenship controversy, we should be looking at the citizenship oath. Dion, presumably, never swore an oath of allegiance to France. Like most native born Canadians, however, he could quite likely have reached the age of 52 without ever swearing an oath of allegiance to Canada.
American school children are required to pledge their allegiance to the US every morning while they stand facing the stars and stripes with their hands over their hearts. Yet, Ezra seems to have no problem with Alberta separatist and dual US-Canadian citizen Ted Morton. If Morton was educated in the US public school system he will have pledged his allegiance to the US approximately 1500 times. When he became a Canadian, he would have pledged his allegiance to Canada just once.
Once, though, is one more time than most Canadians who can go their entire lives without ever swearing an oath to their birth country.
Most Canadians probably do not even know the oath that “new Canadians” must swear to be granted Canadian citizenship. Here it is:
OATH OF CITIZENSHIP
I swear (or affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.
Foreign-born Canadian citizens have all taken that oath. This includes a number of elected MP’s.
The optics are poor. Dion should renounce his French citizenship — even if he never asked for it. It may be a non-issue in Quebec but I think TROC could be understandably queasy about a PM with dual citizenship - regardless of the second country or the circumstances.
BTW, does anyone see anything weird about our oath? Canadians are not pledging their allegiance to Canada but to the Queen of Canada. I posit that most Canadians think of Elizabeth II as the Queen of England and few (other than those taking the oath) even realize that we have a Queen of Canada. I know for a fact that some landed immigrants do not ever become Canadian citizens because of the fact that they do not recognize the superiority of royal birth and feel it has no place in a modern democracy.
James Robert
(Most of this post was originally written as a comment at StageLeft. James Robert is as lazy as JimBobby.)
2 comments:
I disagree. I don't think this will bother anyone but anti-French conservatives who won't vote for Dion anyway.
Whooee! I reckon holdin' French citizenship fer a Canajun pryminister ain't gonna set well with them AFC's like BCL sez. I also reckon there's a difference between anti-Qbeck an' anti-France.
Way I figger, this here French citizenship ain't doin' Stephane any good. It mebbe ain't hurtin' much. Sorta like a wart on his face. It ain't doin' much harm but it ain't purty t' look at. It might hurt a little t' get that there wart removed but it'd be worth it, sez I.
JimBobby
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