Is the Dallas Morning News is messing with us conservative Canucks? Trying to get us all excited about an actual conservative running for office?
Sadly no. They’re just spelling out the kerfuffle surrounding the US Constitutional verbiage around citizenship and the presidency. US law demands that a president be a “natural born Citizen.”
Ted Cruz, a Republican Senator from the state of Texas who speaks “conservative” in bold colors, is a favorite among conservatives on both sides of the border to run for president in 2016. He was born in Calgary, Alberta.
By TODD J. GILLMAN
Washington Bureau
DallasNews.com
Published: 18 August 2013 11:04 PM
Updated: 19 August 2013 12:21 PMWASHINGTON — Born in Canada to an American mother, Ted Cruz became an instant U.S. citizen. But under Canadian law, he also became a citizen of that country the moment he was born.
Unless the Texas Republican senator formally renounces that citizenship, he will remain a citizen of both countries, legal experts say.
That means he could assert the right to vote in Canada or even run for Parliament. On a lunch break from the U.S. Senate, he could head to the nearby embassy — the one flying a bright red maple leaf flag — pull out his Calgary, Alberta, birth certificate and obtain a passport.
“He’s a Canadian,” said Toronto lawyer Stephen Green, past chairman of the Canadian Bar Association’s Citizenship and Immigration Section. …
Cruz released his birth certificate today, which shows he was born in Calgary, Alberta. But ironically the reason he released it was to show that he is an American — because it shows he was born to an American mother, meaning he is a “natural-born citizen of the United States” according to US law. Yes, he’s also a Canadian citizen, according to Canadian law. But that’s just the tease part, seemingly designed just to entice conservatives in Canada.
The Cruz family moved to Calgary for a while in the 1970s to set up a business in the oil patch, then headed back to America after Ted Cruz was born.
So he could run in either country. Sadly, it seems he will choose America over Canada.
But this (once again) reminds me of the movie Dumb and Dumber (no I’m not switching gears to discuss the Democratic Party in the US compared to the Canadian Liberals or New Democrats). Actor Jim Carrey (not to confuse you, but he was also Canadian-born), playing Lloyd, figures that something he really, really wants to happen, just could happen. I mean, it could, much the same way unicorns could deliver the socialist dream of Utopia to our otherwise real world.
From Dumb and Dumber (youtube link):
Lloyd: What do you think the chances are of a guy like you and a girl like me… ending up together?
Mary: Well, Lloyd, that’s difficult to say. I mean, we don’t really…
Lloyd: Hit me with it! Just give it to me straight! I came a long way just to see you, Mary. The least you can do is level with me. What are my chances?
Mary: Not good.
Lloyd: You mean, not good like one out of a hundred?
Mary: I’d say more like one out of a million.
[pause]
Lloyd: So you’re telling me there’s a chance… *YEAH!*
Of course on the up-side, Justin Trudeau could never run in the US. He was born on Uranus. To a father born on Venus, and a lunatic mother.
UPDATE Tues Aug 20 (next day):
- Say something. - Friday October 25, 2024 at 6:03 pm
- Keep going, or veer right - Monday August 26, 2024 at 4:30 pm
- Hey Joel, what is “progressive?” - Friday August 2, 2024 at 11:32 am
RT @JoelJohannesen: Ted Cruz for US President? How about Ted Cruz for Canadian PM? – http://t.co/X7fAfwOAJ8 #tcot #cdnpoli #CPC