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<strong>Filibuster Cartoon</strong>
<strong>Title: </strong> <a href="http://www.filibustercartoons.com/archive.php?id=20061206" target="_blank">The French Canadian</a> (click to view)
<strong>Date: </strong> December 06, 2006

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion is already embroiled in his own little scandal, just days after assuming office. It turns out Mr. Dion is a registered citizen of France. Though he himself was born in Canada, his mother was born in the old country, which in turn allowed him to obtain French citizenship. <br> <br>Dion now refuses to resign his French citizenship, despite calls from the Conservatives and NDP to do so. Most seem to be of the belief that a potential head of state should only have one loyalty, namely to the country he hopes to govern. The current Governor General of Canada used to be a dual citizen, but she faced similar criticisms and abandoned her French citizenship before assuming office.

[Prestwick]

I really dig the strap on de Gaulle nose!

Also I don't see why French Fro- I mean Canadians (I almost said it) have this devotion towards a country (i.e. France) which has very little interest or respect for Qubec .

The French only really use Qubec when it politically suits them. de Gaulle only ranted on about Qubec independence because he wanted to use the province as a stick to beat the British during the European Market saga. He didn't actually seriously want independence for the French Canadians who he saw as inferior and tainted compared to real French folk.

The French are a people convinced of their own intellectual and ideological superiority over everyone else. This goes double for people living or having returned from former French colonies, no matter how long they had left the French sphere of influence (300 years or 3 years, makes no difference.) They'd laugh Dion out of town if he tried to get a nomination with the Socialists in France.

Besides, Segolene Royal is soooo much more glamorous anyway!

[dog77_1999]

I don't think it should really matter. It isn't like he is gonna hand over Canada to France. Oh well.

[Psudo]

Unless you're advocating the dissolution of a nation, I think it makes sense to have a clear distinction of who is running your country. If, for example, the Singapore elected a Malayan citizen, that could easily blur the line between these two interconnected nations. I don't see how this same rule would become obsolete merely because of the size of the nations involved.

[Jabrwock]

Personally I don't think any PM should hold dual citizenship. If the GG shouldn't, then neither should the PM. As just a member of parliament though, I don't see it being much of an issue. The grey zone becomes that he is the leader of the political party. So just because he has the potential to become PM means he should drop the passport for now, until he's either out of office, or is no longer party leader.

He can always regain the citizenship after he leaves office... Unless he manages to piss off the country he dropped the citizenship of. Remember Conrad Black.

[Prestwick]

Aye, he nagged John Major for over a year to give him a peerage. Minute he gets it and he buggers off back to Canada!

Thats gratitude for ya!

[Rhoffman]

Geeze.... you'd think that citizenship would've been one of the things that the Liberal leaders looked at before Dion's election...... being a citizen of another country should be an automatic disqualifier, and I just don't see how people would be willing to support one.

[Prestwick]

I wonder if Dion would be a Gaullist or a Socialist?

[Streaker]

There's some sloppiness here. Dion isn't a "potential head of state", he's a future head of government.

And this idea that French-Canadians are somehow slavishly obsessed with France is untrue, regardless of how reassuring such a belief must be to ignorant bumpkins.

[Prestwick]

Oh I know that the French don't really rate them highly at all! You ask them about Qubec and they just rant on and on and on about how awful the French-Canadians are.

Most likely at that very same time, someone asked a French-Canadian about France and heard him rant on and on and on about how awful the French are.

[Numure]

Mister Prestwick pretending to know fuck-all about french culture.

[Prestwick]

And Mister Numure pretending to know fuck-all about Prestwick!

Oi! This is the impression that we get from being next door neighbors and so called "EU Partners."

Because y'know, we do have to fucking work with them here at work, at play and in society!

[RUEZ]

Streaker wrote:

And this idea that French-Canadians are somehow slavishly obsessed with France is untrue, regardless of how reassuring such a belief must be to ignorant bumpkins.

Sort of like the belief that all Conservatives are American wannabe's.

[Jabrwock]

Sounds like Dion has announced he'll renounce his French citizenship, if it becomes an obstacle to becoming the PM.

He also questioned why everyone seems bothered by it now, because apparently John Turner was dual Canada-UK citizen, WHILE he was PM, and no-one seemed to care at the time.

[RUEZ]

Jabrwock wrote:

Sounds like Dion has announced he'll renounce his French citizenship, if it becomes an obstacle to becoming the PM.

He also questioned why everyone seems bothered by it now, because apparently John Turner was dual Canada-UK citizen, WHILE he was PM, and no-one seemed to care at the time.

I guess the difference would be that John Turner came to Canada and became a citizen, whereas Dion is Canadian and aquired a French citizenship. Had I been old enough to care, I would have bitched about John Turner back then as well.