February 11, 2011
[From my journals]
Last night's 30 Rock created a crisis of loyalty in me by being both Canada- and North Carolina-themed. Liz Lemon has a relationship crisis while on a flight to Raleigh for the weekend, while Jack and his neo-con beloved are on a romantic, pre-parenthood weekend getaway to Toronto when she goes into labour. They are faced with the horrific possibility that their daughter might be born a Canadian, and as a result she would never be President ("As absurd as that sentence sounds").
Then (of course) I had a bit of a panic attack upon realizing that any (totally hypothetical) child I had here would be unable to become President. (I might need to start working on my anxiety problem.) Citizenship shouldn't be a problem for wee Hypothetical S. Pine, but I would never forgive myself if I kept little Hypo out of the White House right out of the gate.
I've talked from time to time with Canadian friends about how distinctly American the ubiquity of the "When I grow up, I'll be the President" childhood dream is. Apparently few children in Canada dream publicly of becoming Prime Minister. I'm intrigued by why this is.
Interestingly enough, to be Prime Minister of Canada, one only needs to be a citizen of Canada, not a natural born Canadian. Could little Hypo be the politician to become President AND Prime Minister? Could I?
Only time will tell.
I don't know what the situation is in the UK, but I doubt you have to have been born here to be Prime Minister. The very fact that I don't know is an indication of just how unimportant an issue it is. In fact, there was far more hoo-ha when the Yorkshire Cricket Club decided that you didn't have to have been born in Yorkshire to play for the side than there would ever have been about the selection of a mere Prime Minister. We like to let our politicians know just how low down on the pecking order they come.
As well they should. ;-)
The more I think about it, the more enraged I become that in a country which tells the world a narrative of limitless individualism and self-determination, such a crucial aspect of the government and indeed the symbol of the nation as a whole is limited by an accident of birth, utterly outside the individual citizen's control. (Is the amount of America-skeptical muttering I've been doing today a part of my Canadianification process? Maybe.)