Shorter Ted Cruz: "Take off, eh!"
A presidential candidate has a deep, dark secret: He's a Canadian.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (above, at left) -- the Tea Party favorite and presumptive 45th president of the United States (because we haven't hit rock bottom yet) -- is doing something that many Americans can only fantasize about. He's renouncing Canada!
(Reuters) - Senator Ted Cruz, who recently discovered that he is likely a Canadian, must win security clearance from Canada's spy agency, fill in a four-page form and then wait up to eight months to sever his ties to America's northern neighbor.
Cruz, a Texas Republican who has fueled speculation that he may run for president in 2016, was born in Canada, which would in virtually all cases automatically entitle him to citizenship. On Monday he offered to renounce that citizenship in the event that he has it.
"Nothing against Canada, but I'm an American by birth and as a U.S. senator, I believe I should be only an American," Cruz said in a statement.
Cruz would be in rare company if he goes ahead, as efforts to give up Canadian citizenship are rare. The website of Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the go-to site for questions about nationality, offers far more information about becoming Canadian than about renouncing citizenship.
A person giving up citizenship must be Canadian, prove they are or will become a citizen of another country, not live in Canada and not be a security threat. They must also explain in writing why they don't want to be a Canadian any more.
I don't know about you, but I can smell the back bacon of controversy in the frying pan. Will Cruz try to name Tim Horton as his running mate in 2016? The most ironic part, as this Reuters story makes clear, is that Canada has no clear path to citizenship renouncing. Sounds like they shoudl adopt citizenship-renouncing reform! Meanwhile, I predict that Cruz will try to satisfy skeptical GOP primary voters by making this his campaign theme song: