I didn’t know I was lost until my cousin UKW stunned me with news of a new Canadian law that will allow many people to apply for either Canadian citizenship or dual US-Canadian citizenship. The astounding thing is that it seems possible that me and my cuzzints might qualify!!! Why? Because we share a set of grandparents who were born in Canada.

I seem to never know what kind of rabbit-hole I’ll fall into next. Today it was a sticky wicket of finding my grandparents’ birth, marriage, and US naturalization documents (with side forays into Ancestry but we’ll go there another day). I knew I had them… The GG finally found them. And scanned them. Why did I even have them? I have a reputation as family historian (or as I prefer, storyteller, even though my stories are not always accurate) but really I just had those documents because my parents lived in my grandparents’ house after they died and they were still hanging around after my parents died. I KNEW THEY WERE IMPORTANT SO I DIDN’T GET RID OF THEM. Why were they not in the ginormous safe deposit box down at the Sault Ste. Siberia bank? I do not know. WHY DID I NOT PUT THEM IN A SAFE? I do not know. But we have them and I sent scans out to the cousins I knew were interested and I’ll share them with any other relatives who want them.

There are cousin-y folks in the fam who are interested in at least exploring this possible opportunity. I say “possible” because the systems analyst in me is always looking for the “gotchas”. Am I interested? Yes yes yes I am. But I’m gonna let some of the braver folks be the guinea pigs. I don’t know what their reasons are and they are none of my business but I love and support everyone who embarks on this journey.

When (and I think it *will* be when) I apply, it will be for dual citizenship. I was born a US citizen and life in this country has been good to me (even as much as I HATE Trump and MAGA). I own multiple properties here and I won’t want to move to Canada (as much as I love it) unless things get precipitously worse. Will they? I do not know. I don’t know that I am optimistic exactly but one of the things I like about the USA is that we are allowed the freedom to criticize our government and the people running it without getting thrown in prison. Or are we?

My grandparents’ families moved here from Canada because of poverty (and a tragedy in my grandfather’s birth family). Granddaddy had dual citizenship as a young man (before his marriage and family). At some point it became really difficult to keep both countries so, living in the USA, it was easier to drop Canada. I know that he greatly loved Canada for his whole life but also loved the USA, making his two sons drop out of med school and college to serve in WWII. (I also know that Canada sent soldiers to that war.)

I’d like to say my main reason for applying will be because it might make crossing the border a bit easier although on the other hand, I’m thinking maybe it’ll mean hauling TWO passports around. But also, when someone used the phrase “Lost Canadians”, it hit me like “oof, that might be me.” I’ve been looking at Canada my whole life, living across the river from it growing up and looking out at Gros Cap from the moominbeach in the summer. All of this time, it never even once occurred to me that I could actually become a dual citizen. That Canada might even *want* the likes of me.

I am emotional about this and am still processing it. Please excuse me for that. Who knows how this process will go. How many gotchas we’ll encounter. Etc., etc., etc. I have actual tears tonight but they are the cathartic (“cathartic” is probably not exactly the right word) tears of emotions spilling over. Emotions that have nowhere else to go. The earth may have shifted a bit.

G’night, KW

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