I feel that USCitzenAbroad’s comment on Eric’s post is deserving of its own post.
The (former) Premier of New Brunswick David Alward, born in Massachusetts (who previously expressed frustration over his IRS tax compliance obligations) has renounced his U.S. citizenship.
USCitizenAbroad now alerts us to the possibility that another Premier, Premier-Elect Rachel Notley of Alberta, may also be a U.S. person.
For the protection of these hapless U.S. persons and that of the Canadian people, should proof of non-U.S. citizenship status be a requirement for accepting public office in Canada for all those who have a U.S. taint?
THE ORIGINAL COMMENT:
@Eric
Thanks for your continued research and attention to detail on this important topic.
Thanks in particular for including the chart of “some” recent renunciants. I note that “David Alward”, (the former premier of New Brunswick), is on that list. I note also that the reason given was his acceptance of his new role as Canadian Consul General in Boston. [I (SK) personally believe that there are other reasons; see below].
This may be a bit of a “homecoming” for Mr. Alward. A Wikepedia entry says that was born in Beverly, Massachusetts and moved to Canada at a young age (a familiar narrative).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Alward
Alward was born in Beverly, Massachusetts. The son of a minister, Alward moved to Atlantic Canada in his youth where he graduated from high school in Nackawic, New Brunswick.[4] Alward received his post-secondary education in psychology in the United States at Bryan College in Dayton, Tennessee.[5]
Mr. Alward’s renunciation of U.S. citizenship is of possible interest for another reason. It was reported in 2011, (and apparently confirmed by Mr Alward) that he was having the usual “U.S. tax compliance problems”. See the following blog post (which appears to have been based on news articles in 2011):
https://expatsinca.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/new-brunswick-premier-david-alward-caught-in-fatca-nightmare/
At least we’re not alone; New Brunswick Premier David Alward is caught in the same broad net that is causing so much stress and lack of sleep for American expats the world over.
Alward, who was born in Massachusetts and spent a few years of his childhood in the US before his family settled in New Brunswick, has issued a statement that he understands the frustration we feel as we sort through years of records to bring ourselves into compliance with the US Treasure Department’s draconian regulations.
“I’ve had to scramble like thousands of other people,” Alward said, adding that he is complying with the U.S. demand for tax returns going back years and detailed disclosures.
“This is a difficult situation for a lot of people. I can tell them I am going through the very same thing they are going through.”
FATCA – which was enacted in an attempt to catch and punish tax evaders, drug lords, and money launderers – casts too broad a net, and is instead causing a great deal of fear among honest, law-abiding Canadian residents who do not owe money to the US. Many, like Alward, have only distant ties to the US.
“I don’t know where it will lead or what our success will be – they have the right to tax American citizens. But the fact is a lot of these people that are in Canada, and I think it’s over a million, most have never lived in the United States and it’s just happenstance they were born there,” added Keith Ashfield, Canada’s former revenue minister and the senior cabinet minister for New Brunswick.
We are not criminals, and we are not tax evaders. We’ve merely committed errors of omission and we do not deserve to lumped in alongside wilful tax evaders.
Such is part of the story of the former premier of the Canadian province of New Brunswick. I wish him luck in his new job.
Mr. Alward is one example of the many Canadians with some kind of U.S. connection in their past. A connection that they clearly regret.
Moving on to current premiers:
As you know, Rachel Notley has just become the NDP premier of Alberta. The following Wikipedia entry includes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Notley
Notley was born on April 17, 1964[4][5][6] in Edmonton, Alberta, and was raised in the town of Fairview, Alberta, the daughter of Sandra Mary “Sandy” (Wilkinson) and Alberta NDP Leader and MLA Grant Notley.[7][8] She is the sister of Paul Notley and Stephen Notley (author and illustrator of Bob the Angry Flower).[9] Her mother was born in Plunkett, Massachusetts.[10]
It appears that Rachel Notley “may” (further details would be required) have been born to a “U.S. citizen” mother. This of course leads to the tantalizing question for Ms. Notley of:
“Are you, or have you ever been a U.S. citizen?”
The Obama Legacy is such that one of the most interesting things to know about a person has become, is the degree of their “USness”.
@George
“The answer is YES.”
Are you suggesting that this should be up to individual voters–but that in your opinion individual voters should be cautious about electing someone whose national loyalties aren’t clear and you yourself would not vote for such a candidate if you didn’t know they’d clearly renounced US ties?
Or are you making the much stronger claim that Boris Johnson should be denied his seat in Parliament despite having been elected by a majority of voters in his district? And despite the fact that said Parliamentary election took place after Johnson’s alleged US ties were well publicized and the voters clearly had the opportunity to make up their own minds?
@MuzzledNoMore
My question is, could not our recognition of Ms. Notley’s possible US personhood be given a positive application? She is a member of the party who actively supported us throughout the parliamentary Finance Committee hearings last year. Could she not be approached to lend her voice to help get the word out on this issue prior to the upcoming federal election?
I generally feel that politicians outside the US with a possible (remote in Notley’s case) connection to the US should be approached as potential allies not denigrated for having the “US taint”. I understand the point that some are trying to make but it has resulted in a growing string of potential political allies being first trumpeted on here as having dubious qualifications to serve–not a good way to approach one’s natural allies.
The exception has been Elizabeth May who was born in the US but who does seem to have been warmly accepted as an ally in this fight. The Elizabeth May experience should be the rule, not the exception, though IMHO.
“Should proof of non-U.S. citizenship be an absolute condition for accepting public office in Canada?”
Basically–only the US can define what is considered valid proof of “non-U.S. citizenship”. If you make that an “absolute condition” for accepting public office in Canada, then how would that be enforced? The only way would be for the US to vet Canadian candidates–saying that this one is a US person, this one is not, and so on.
I think the main point made about Rachel Notley was the question *does she or does she not know she would / could be defined by the US a US citizen?* and, if not, she surely needs to be aware. I never got the impression that anyone was denigrating the David that slayed the Goliath of the 44-year PC reign in Alberta. Hopefully, she does know. Perhaps she has done everything needed to make this problem have gone away for her. Perhaps she didn’t have a clue. Hopefully, this is not going to be the same problem for her as for many others of us — and, thankfully, she will not pass US-ness on to her children. The good thing is that Ms. Notley was born on Canadian soil and her Canadian passport would not show a *US place of birth* — pointing out the fairness / unfairness of all of this. It is, just and yet another example of the absurdity we speak of here and the different people it can affect, turning up in many nooks and crannies of Canada (and other countries) where we were not aware before.
(Note: Stephen’s post was aptly labelled REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM !!)
@calgary411
“I think the main point made about Rachel Notley was the question *does she or does she not know she would / could be defined by the US a US citizen?*”
Fair enough–but the above question is a substantially different question from the subject question of this post:
“Should proof of non-U.S. citizenship be an absolute condition for accepting public office in Canada?”
Being aware of these issues to the best of one’s ability is one thing; being expected to provide proof of such non-status from a foreign power which may or may not be willing to provide such proof is something else indeed.
I agree with Dash. If Canada were to require politicians to prove non-US status then the discriminatory aspects of this mess are compounded yet again. Any Canadian citizen, regardless of his/her origin, should be able to stand for elected office.
What needs to end is the US assault on Canadian finances. The application of FATCA and FBAR to non-residents of the US needs to stop and CBT must be abolished.
YES – you cannot serve “two” masters and serve faithfully to the constituents of your riding.
For the archives, here is a link that still works for the fulltext of the Telegraph article about David Alward’s ‘US personhood for tax purposes
U.S. tax net even affects premier’
Saturday October 1st, 2011
Chris Morris
Telegraph-Journal
https://web.archive.org/web/20111005180503/http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/news/article/1444557 .
I guess to his fellow Con MPs and MPPs Alward was just another of “… those American citizens who are abiding here in Canada…” (eh Con MP Kevin Sorenson? https://openparliament.ca/debates/2014/4/3/kevin-sorenson-6/
) and worthless “…American citizen[s] living in Canada..” (eh Gerald Keddy? https://openparliament.ca/debates/2014/6/4/gerald-keddy-2/ ) – even if he was also the PREMIER of NEW BRUNSWICK at the time and onetime head of their provincial Conservative Party – and NOW the CANADIAN Consul to Boston.