New Liberal leader Stephane Dion is a citizen of Canada and a citizen of France. His mother is French and, under French law, he became a citizen of France by dint of the fact that his mother is French. He does not have a French passport. In any event, the fact of his dual citizenship has some wondering if someone who might one day be Prime Minister ought to hold dual citizenships. My colleague Robert Fife may have more on this on tonight’s national newscast.
Interestingly enough, Dion was not the only Liberal leadership candidate with dual citizenship. Joe Volpe and Maurizio Bevilacqua were born in Italy and Hedy Fry was born in Trinidad. Presumably, they are citizens of the country of their birth in addition to being Canadians.
**IMPORTANT UPDATE: Incorrect presumption — Please read here for more details**
In fact, there are lots of MPs who are citizens of Canada and some other country. Here is a list the reporters at Canadian Press compiled earlier this year of MPs who were born outside of Canada:
- Diane Ablonczy, United States
- Omar Alghabra, Saudi Arabia
- Vivian Barbot, Haiti
- Susan Barnes, Malta
- Maurizio Bevilacqua, Italy
- John Cannis, Greece
- Raymond Chan, China
- Chris Charlton, Germany
- Olivia Chow, Hong Kong
- Tony Clement, England
- Libby Davies, England
- Sukh Dhaliwal, India
- Ujjal Dosanjh, India
- Steven Fletcher, Brazil
- Joe Fontana, Italy
- Hedy Fry, Trinidad
- Nina Grewal, Japan
- Albina Guarnieri, Italy
- Rahim Jaffer, Uganda
- Jim Karygiannis, Greece
- Wajid Khan, Pakistan
- Maka Kotto, Cameroon
- Gurbax Malhi, India
- Inky Mark, China
- Keith Martin, England
- Tony Martin, Ireland
- Maria Minna, Italy
- Maria Mourani, Ivory Coast
- Deepak Obhrai, Tanzania
- Daniel Petit, Belgium
- Yasmin Ratansi, Tanzania
- Pablo Rodriguez, Argentina
- Michael Savage, Northern Ireland
- Mario Silva, Portugal
- Peter Stoffer, Netherlands
- Andrew Telegdi, Hungary
- Lui Temelkovski, Macedonia
- Myron Thompson, United States
- Vic Toews, Paraguay
- Joe Volpe, Italy
- John Williams, Scotland
I like this. It says something great about this country and the people who come here.
I was born in Scotland.