Quite a number of years ago, I check out a cousin's child's right to Canadian citizenship and, as the person in question was born somewhere else, they needed to assert their Canadianness before a certain date or lose it. Apparently the rules will tighten tomorrow:

April 17 marks the implementation of a new rule created by the Canadian government. If you are a Canadian living overseas, passing on your citizenship will now become more difficult: Your children won’t get a Canadian passport unless one of their parents was either born in Canada, or had become a citizen by immigrating into Canada. Many Canadians are up in arms about this, ex-pats in particular. But I didn’t even know about the rule changes until a friend in Toronto forwarded me a mass-circulated protest e-mail. The message vilifies the policy, suggesting that all children of Canadian have a “right” to Canadian citizenship — no matter where they are born — and is accompanied by the obligatory petition to sign and forward.

I have a second nationality so this sort of scrutiny does not seem odd to me. In the 80s, I applied for and got UK right of abode. Under the current UK rules, I am pretty sure l am able to still apply for full citizenship based on family ties but that is not absolutely clear to me due to the complexity of the rules. Plus, I may have to show I am of good character. I hope I qualify. Maybe these bloggy posts would be my downfall.

I think these sorts of things are good. I am reminded of that by the scandal in PEI related to the selling of citizenships leading to an impossible but for-profit local explosion of immigrant investors which has come to the point that a Minister of the Crown has told people involved to retain lawyers. Those out of pocket may have to wait years to even get their papers.

Wouldn't it be better if we had a firm set of rules around these things and rules that were actually administered by the level of government responsible for citizenship? Wouldn't it be nice to know your citizenship is worth something, that I have been part of a process that relates to, you know, ideas like good character?