Could the next Republican presidential nominee be a Canadian?
Don’t hold your breath.
A favoured candidate for the 2016 Republican nomination was born in Calgary and could be considered U.S.-Canadian.
Freshman Texas Senator Ted Cruz – a Tea Party favourite – has come under scrutiny in recent months because he wasn’t born in the U.S.
That usually precludes anyone from taking on the job of Head of State, even if they become U.S. citizens. That’s why there will be no President Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Although Cruz was born in Cow Town, in 1970, it was to an American mother who gave him U.S. citizenship at birth.
But, both the Washington Post and Slate noted, if you’re born in Canada you’re a Canadian citizen and can have dual citizenship.
Cruz appears to not be taking any chances with his future.
Late Monday, the Washington Post reported the senator will renounce his Canadian citizenship.
“Now the Dallas Morning News says that I may technically have dual citizenship,” Cruz said in a statement, according to the Washington Post. “Assuming that is true, then sure, I will renounce any Canadian citizenship. Nothing against Canada, but I’m an American by birth and as a U.S. senator; I believe I should be only an American.”
It doesn’t appear Cruz realized he was essentially half-Canuck.
According to his spokesperson Cathy Frazier, speaking to the Dallas Morning News, he never had Canadian citizenship.
“Senator Cruz became a U.S. citizen at birth, and he never had to go through a naturalization process after birth to become a U.S. citizen,” Frazier said.
The Washington Post reported his mother told him he could seek Canadian citizenship, if he so desired. Clearly he never did and now never will.
Question of birth place
Cruz’s father is Cuban and, according to Cruz, actually fought in the revolution as a teenager.
“He was a guerilla, throwing Molotov cocktails and blowing up buildings,” Cruz said in a 2006 profile published in the Austin American-Statesman.
His father, Rafael Cruz, fled to the U.S in 1957.
You would think that back story might be an issue for some critics. But, no, the debate has been whether or not he’s a Canuck.
To silence his adversaries, once and for all, Cruz released his birth certificate on Monday.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Last year, after much rhetoric from Tea Party members and incessant demands from billionaire Donald Trump, President Barack Obama did exactly the same thing.
Obama was born in 1961 in Hawaii to an American mother and a Kenyan-born father.
Vanity Fair recently lampooned that hoopla on Obama’s birthday, on Aug. 4, in an article titled “Barack Obama Celebrates 52nd Anniversary of Creation of Forged Birth Certificate.”
It’s not the first time the question of Canadian birth has been an issue in someone seeking a spot in the Oval Office.
Chester A. Arthur, the 21st president, faced down rumours that he was born in Canada. According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), Arthur was born in the U.S., in 1829.
Incidentally, much like Obama, his mother was American but his father was not. Arthur’s father was Irish.
As far as Cruz being a potential candidate to run in the next election, his birth place probably won’t be an issue.
A bigger issue may be that he is considered a divisive force within the GOP.
Politico reported last month he has gone to bat with members of his party, going to bat over issues such as using health care (Obamacare) funding and the debt ceiling.
“Cruz is part of a new breed of Republicans who relish the intraparty warfare, believing that a push for GOP purity will help build their stature within the party while pulling Republicans further to the right,” Politico reporters Manu Raju and Burgess Everett wrote.
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