Flags at half mast all across Canada as the nation bids a tearful farewell to it's beloved son

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**Ouze**

source

No, Canada: Sen. Ted Cruz has formally shed his dual citizenship
By Todd J. Gillman

Alberta-born Sen. Ted Cruz has given up his Canadian dual citizenship. The renunciation became official on May 14, roughly 9 months after he learned he wasn’t only an American.

Cruz received notification by mail on Tuesday at his home in Houston.

“He’s pleased to receive the notification and glad to have this process finalized,” said spokeswoman Catherine Frazier.

Cruz’s birth in Canada was never a secret. But it proved a political liability, with detractors taunting him as “Canadian Ted” and critics suggesting that his birthplace made him ineligible to run for president.

The dual citizenship came as a surprise to Cruz and his parents when The Dallas Morning News reported on it last August.

The senator provided a copy of his Canadian birth certificate at the time. He vowed almost immediately to shed his Canadian citizenship, and promised to tell The News first as soon as he succeeded.

“Nothing against Canada, but I’m an American by birth and as a U.S. senator, I believe I should be only an American,” he said the day of the initial report.

Canadian Renunciation Letter

Canadian law is similar to that in the United States. Citizenship is automatic for nearly everyone born on the country’s soil, whether that person wants it or not, and without any need to request it. In theory, Cruz could have asserted the right to vote in Canada, or even to run for Parliament, and he could have received a Canadian passport.

Under U.S. law, a foreign-born baby is entitled to American citizenship if at least one parent is an American. That was the case for Cruz — and it’s a crucial point if he makes a White House run in 2016, as is widely expected.

The U.S. Constitution requires a president to be a “natural born” citizen. The popular understanding has long been that this means being born on American soil. But Cruz was entitled to American citizenship at birth. Because of that, a strong legal consensus has emerged that Cruz is, in fact, eligible.

That’s something the tea party senator has in common with President Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan but whose mother was from Kansas. So-called “birthers” have proposed that Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii. But even if true, he would have been an American at birth.

In December, Cruz said he had hired lawyers to assist in the effort to renounce his Canadian citizenship.

When he was born on Dec. 22, 1970, his parents were living in the Canadian oil patch in Calgary. His mother is a native-born American. His father, a Cuban émigré who later became a naturalized American, was still a Cuban citizen.

Cruz has said that when he was a child, his mother had told him she would have had to make an affirmative act to claim Canadian citizenship for him. Since that never happened, the family always had assumed that he did not hold Canadian citizenship.

I don't know the details of the exact ceremony, but I believe it involves the Queen of Canada putting both hands in butterscotch pudding and then slapping Mr. Cruz on both sides of the face while onlookers toss Captain Crunch, as is tradition.

**44Ronin**

So it is American to destroy your own identity in order to sell out to a shallow audience?

**Grey Templar**

I think its hardly his identity. He only learned about it recently apparently.

I think its poor form for anyone running for high office to hold dual citizenship(at least knowingly)

**Ahtman**

Grey Templar wrote:
duel citizenship

So he hast to fight to get rid of it? Or is that to keep it?

**Grey Templar**

too tired, violent tendencies rising to the fore...

**Jihadin**

Ahtman wrote:
Grey Templar wrote:
duel citizenship

So he hast to fight to get rid of it? Or is that to keep it?

**44Ronin**

Grey Templar wrote:

I think its poor form for anyone running for high office to hold dual citizenship(at least knowingly)

I don't care how many citizenships someone holds, I'm not into shallow symbolism

I'm a dual citizen myself btw.,

**Jihadin**

Same here

Nothing special about it. Didn't stop my TS clearance

**Grey Templar**

You don't see the potential conflict of interest if, say, a senator could vote in another country's election. Or even hold office in both countries?

**Jihadin**

GT. I believe if a Senator tries to vote in another country, as in the case of Cruz, or hold another political office in a foreign country, as in the case of Cruz, then it'll be political suicide for both areas. I to found out the way Cruz did that I was a dual citizen same way as Cruz dual citizenship.

If Cruz runs for POTUS office would his former status as "dual citizenship" be a target of debate?

**whembly**

What's the big deal? Seriously?

**easysauce**

.....

if this wanst a problem for swartzenegger,

why is it for cruz?

**Grey Templar**

I'm just saying dropping the citizenship was the right thing to do.

Its the principle of the thing.

And no, I wouldn't consider his former citizenship to be a subject of debate. He didn't know till just recently and then he did the right thing.

**squidhills**

Grey Templar wrote:
You don't see the potential conflict of interest if, say, a senator could vote in another country's election. Or even hold office in both countries?

I think there are probably rules about holding elected office in two countries at the same time. If not, I would think the amount of work involved would make it impractical. If not, I would think that already holding elected office in another country would be ammunition for a potenial rival candidate to use against one. So I think it's kind of a non-issue.

As for being able to vote in another country's elections, I find that one vote simply doesn't matter at all. Monetary donations to campaigns and party machines are far more effective than a single vote coming from a foreigner. So it's another non-issue.

**timetowaste85**

Am I the only one who hoped when reading the title that it was an ironic title, and the news was actually that Justin Bieber wrapped his car around a free? I find myself caring a lot less about this, and wished for the former.

**Grey Templar**

timetowaste85 wrote:
Am I the only one who hoped when reading the title that it was an ironic title, and the news was actually that Justin Bieber wrapped his car around a free? I find myself caring a lot less about this, and wished for the former.

I think we all secretly wished that.

**timetowaste85**

If it was only secretly, then people suck. At least I was open about my hopes and dreams.

**Jihadin**

Mine was "in a fiery crash" and not wrapped around a tree

**Ouze**

whembly wrote:
What's the big deal? Seriously?

Mr. Cruz is considering a run for President. Do you not believe the fact he was born in Alberta and held dual citizenship to be a potential problem for that?

**Jihadin**

Um no. Has he brought into Canada Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve? Has he follow in the footsteps of Reid son in the Ukraine?

**Co'tor Shas**

Was Cruz born to a American citizen? if so, than it does not matter. It's like the birther thing, even if Obama was born in Kenya it would not have mattered because we was born to an american citizen. McCain was born in Panama for god's sake.

**Ouze**

Jihadin wrote:
Um no. Has he brought into Canada Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve?

For all I know, he has indeed made the holiest of all Canadian pilgrimages to Quebec, and was then ritually drowned in a vat of Maple Syrup and resuscitated, as is customary.

**streamdragon**

One more crappy Canadian export. Celine Dion, Beiber and Bryan Adams werent enough Canada?. WHY DO YOU HATE OUR FREEDOMS?

**Ouze**

Co'tor Shas wrote:
Was Cruz born to a American citizen? if so, than it does not matter. It's like the birther thing, even if Obama was born in Kenya it would not have mattered because we was born to an american citizen.

And yet, years of idiocy, half halfheartedly encouraged by the right wing, anyway!

**Jihadin**

McCain was born on a US Military Installation in the Canal Zone. He is an American Citizen. Just clarifying

**Co'tor Shas**

Jihadin wrote:
McCain was born on a US Military Installation in the Canal Zone. He is an American Citizen. Just clarifying

I know, but the point is that he was born to an american citizen, and thus is eligible to be pres. right there.

**Jihadin**

Ouze wrote:
Jihadin wrote:
Um no. Has he brought into Canada Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve?

For all I know, he has indeed made the holiest of all Canadian pilgrimages to Quebec, and was then ritually drowned in a vat of Maple Syrup and resuscitated, as is customary.

Dammit. I want to be a Canadian for day and bring lots and lots of waffles, pancakes, sausage, etc etc etc

**whembly**

Ouze wrote:
whembly wrote:
What's the big deal? Seriously?

Mr. Cruz is considering a run for President. Do you not believe the fact he was born in Alberta and held dual citizenship to be a potential problem for that?

O.o

Sure, but they'd be in the minority like the whole Obama is a Kenyan kerfluffle.

Simple stated, his mom is a Citizen, ego... he's a citizen. Just like Obama's situation.

**Ouze**

If Sheriff Joe doesn't form a posse to investigate the possibility that Cruz faked his renunciation, then the whole birther movement has been exposed, unambiguously, as the purely, 100% racist affair it was long suspected to be.

**whembly**

Ouze wrote:
If Sheriff Joe doesn't form a posse to investigate the possibility that Cruz faked his renunciation, then the whole birther movement has been exposed, unambiguously, as the purely, 100% racist affair it was long suspected to be.

Okay. Sure.

Disclaimer: I would vehemently vote against Cruz in a Presidential Primary. The last one-term Senator isn't doing so well.