Dual citizenship in Canada...

Seems as though the government is going to take a new look at dual citizenship. I'm curious to see how this develops, and how it might eventually effect me. I was born in Canada, but I also hold British citizenship (and I have a British passport) deriving from the fact that my dad was born in the UK. Interestingly, I actually had my British passport before I had ever even been to the UK, and it was no harder for me to get than my Canadian.

Now, if the government changes the law to no longer "accept" dual citizenship, how would that effect me? Unlike an immigrant to Canada, the government of Canada has no record indicating that I have British citizenship, or that I hold a British passport. So, were the law changed, would I have to surrender my British passport? If so, how would the Canadian government know to ask me to surrender it, or whether or not I had? Would I surrender it to Canadian authorities or British? What if I didn't surrender it? Could the government strip a natural-born Canadian of citizenship for such an offence? Would I then have to move to the UK? Would the UK take me (unless they change UK law, I'm certain the answer is yes, but for other nations it might not be clear). These are all hypotheticals of course, but interesting questions in advance of any debate. (For the record, I always knew if the law changed I'd give up my UK citizenship, but the logistics and other considerations are interesting nonetheless).

I'd imagine there are a fair number of Canadians who were born in Canada, have lived all their lives in Canada, perhaps have never even been outside of Canada, who nonetheless possess passports from other nations. The Canadian government would have no way of knowing that these people have said passports, unless they've used them to re-enter Canada (and since they presumably hold Canadian passports too, if they've ever left the country, why would they have used their second passport to re-enter?). I wonder how a change in law would be enforced upon these people.

It'll be an interesting debate if it gets that far.

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Please Liberal party, you've got to save me!!!

Well, the NDP just lost my vote. Too bad for them, as I've voted NDP in the last two federal elections.

Now, c'mon Liberal party, save me.

'Cause if I end up being left with only the Tories to vote for, I'm not voting at all.

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