Waking Up Canadian

Our Most Prized Possession!

Today is a big day, but it's important to start with abit of Canadian history. It was the tradition of the old British Empire that when someone was born a subject of the empire, they never lost their subjecthood or citizenship. In fact, this was one of the causes of the War of 1812 between the United States and England, because the Brits considered captured U.S. sailors to still be British subjects, and therefore subject to serving in the British Navy.

The member states of the British Empire and the subsequent Commonwealth generally continued this practice. Unfortunately in 1947, the Canadian government upset the applecart, so to speak, with the passage of the Citizenship Act of 1947. This act stripped Canadian citizens of their citizenship, for among other things, having parents who moved out of Canada and naturalized their children in other countries such as the United States. The Citizenship Act of 1947 continued in force until 1977. Yours truly was one of the Canadian citizens by birth unfortunate to be born during this period to parents who almost immediately thereafter moved to the States.

However, everything changed today! We woke up as a bona fide Canadian citizen once again! A new Canadian law took effect on April 17, 2009 which restored Canadian citizenship to any person such as ourselves born in Canada between 1947 and 1977 and possessing a valid Canadian birth certificate, which we proudly do!

We are a proud Canuck once again!