Ted Cruz has “nothing against Canada.” Likewise, many Canadians born in US have”Nothing against United States (until now).
Here is an article by Lynne Swanson (aka Blaze) which appeared on the Congress blog at The Hill today.
This tells Senator Ted Cruz he has nothing to fear from Canada for renouncing Canadian citizenship–unlike what happens in reverse
Senator Cruz, Canada respects your decision to renounce your Canadian citizenship. When it is granted, I assure you Canada will not stalk you for information about your private finances and will not demand taxes or penalties from you.
Senator Cruz, will you and your Congressional colleagues do the same to protect Canadians and others around the world from outrageous demands of IRS and US Treasury?
Brilliant article. Brava!
Crystal clear and well-written, too.
Victoria
Another fantastic article and great, well written comments. This article has to be the apex, so far, of the struggle against U.S. tax imperialism.
Thanks for another winner, Ms. Swanson!!!
Your relentless work is appreciated; some don’t yet know that they will be appreciating.
Another great article at The Hill! This is so important. I can’t thank you enough for being able to publish there. So many in D.C. read it!
From “Who We Are” at The Hill
The Hill has a print circulation of above 24,000 — with the largest circulation on Capitol Hill — and is read by opinion leaders, including 100% of Congressional offices, the White House, political pundits, association executives, lobbyists and corporate leaders.
( and visitors to Maplesandbox.ca and Isaacbrocksociety.ca)
Print circulation of 24,000 isn’t high. I wonder what the on-line stats are. I suspect it may be higher.
Considering their readership, they’re the ones we want to reach.
Well done Blaze….
You are indeed a mosquito whose buzz has been amplified via “The Hill”.
Wow! After having been gone for 4 days on a road trip, just myself and 3 daughters, where we had to ‘suffer’ because the hotel internet wasn’t working yesterday for the 2 laptops and one IPAD we had to bring, I am thrilled to have come home to read this article!
Awesome full moon yesterday as well.
@WhiteKat: I’m not finished. Neither is Victoria. She and I have teamed up on a couple of projects and we are each working on indivdual ones.
I submitted a few article to other American and Canadian sources, but they have not been accepted for publication. I will keep plugging away.
One which was approved from publication in Canada a few weeks ago has not yet appeared and the editor is now away. I’ll keep working on it.
You are awesome Blaze! And so is Victoria. Both of your tireless, relentless, buzzing is sure to have a huge impact. Please don’t stop!
I’m a little late to commenting on your latest article, after recovering from 4 days on the road with 3 teens, but finally got around to it.
I am so looking forward to reading more of your articles!
Here is what I sent to Kevin Shoom and Jim Flaherty:
Here is Shoom’s reply to me.
Not terribly encouraging. Has anyone else contacted them about Cruz renouncing? What was the response?
“Best wishes for the weekend”? OK, that was an interesting response. How’s about something like: “best wishes in your pursuit to kill a Canada IGA for FATCA”?
Belated congratulations, Lynne! I was out of the country when this article appeared, and am just now getting back to my emails.
I think that it’s important to signal to all our Canadian politicians that there is no reciprocity between Canada and the US, neither in the likelihood of “information sharing” under any IGA, but also neither in terms of how each country treats its “accidental citizens.” The contrast is quite stark, and I think it important to stress to our politicians the severity of this imbalance and how any Canadian compliance with it in an IGA would violate our Charter, banking, privacy and sovereignty. I am drafting an email on these points, which I will be sending to Harper, Flaherty, Mulcair, Trudeau, May and my own MP. I will explicitly mention the precedent any IGA would set for the rights of all naturalized Canadians no matter what their national origin, the political ramifications of that, and the fact that we’re going to keep hammering at mainstream media in Canada as well as in the US over these points, if Canada caves into US over-reach.
My son is an entrepreneur in the US, reads the Wall Street Journal daily, is well-aware of the issues being raised and is very supportive of our concerns (and uses the phrase “IRS over-reach”). I had a good discussion with him about this in our visit with him and my grandkids this month; there are knowledgeable and even influential Americans who are very aware of how awful this is. I don’t delude myself into thinking they’re a majority now, but I think thoughtful and educated Americans, when exposed to clear and calm expositions of what is horribly wrong with what the US Treasury and IRS and Congress are doing, recognize and sympathize with the arguments. Lynne and Victoria’s earlier Hill blog, and Lynne’s latest, are important contributions to the struggle IMO. We just need to get the message across more strongly here in Canada. I appreciate all that Lynne and others are trying to do with our media in that regard, and I think it’s vital that each of us individually keep hammering these points with our own federal politicians. Especially at public meetings such as the September 15 NDP nomination meeting for the Toronto Centre federal by-election, where FATCA cheerleader Linda McQuaig is said to be a strong contender for that nomination. Toronto Centre NDP members, please take notice …
If I get any interesting replies to my emails on this subject, I’ll quote them on this thread.
@Blaze, belated congratulations – another well-written, logical and rational article, that I hope will raise some eyebrows down there. You do us proud!