Random Ruminations of My Mind

On the news the other day, there was a discussion going on about dual citizenship and how Canada is among the very few countries in the world that allows for such priviledges for its own citizens. This discussion came about due to what recently transpired in the middle east, when israel and lebanon were going at it, and about 50,000 “lebanese-canadians” were trapped in lebanon, waiting to be rescued by the Canadian government. Of those, only about 15,000 were rescued and transported to nearby Cyprus or back to Canada via ferries, chartered airplanes, etc. Total Estimated Cost: $65,000,000. Expensive?… lets do the math… $65,000,000 / 15,000 = $4333.33 per person. Very expensive! Back then, the Canadian governement decided that the burden of this expense would be on the taxpayers (ie. those that live and work within Canada and pay hefty taxes for priveledges like this). So here’s the question: Should Canadians living outside of Canada enjoy the same benefits as tax-paying Canadians living inside of Canada?

At first glance, I’d say no. In fact, I’d say this is an outrage! How dare people benefit from my tax dollars, when they don’t pay a single cent towards the Canadian economy. And what pissed me off further was the fact that of the 15,000 that were rescued, nearly half of them, about 7,000 returned back to Lebanon (as reported by CTV). After thinking about it for a while, however, I started leaning the other way. I started thinking that although Dual Citizenship has some holes in it, its still an important part of what I’d call being Canadian.

Notwithstanding the fact that nearly half the Lebanese returned to their homes in Lebanon, I think Canada made an the right decision in spending what it deemed necessary to rescue the 15,000 or so Canadians. Why? Well, first, I don’t really look at this as a burden on taxpayers for rescuing other Canadians. It was moreso a humanitarian effort to rescue people in need. Second of all, had the Canadian government acted pro-actively, and not reactively, they wouldn’t have had to pay so much for the rescue. i mean, come on, $4300 per person to go one way from Lebanon to Canada?!?!? The government made mistakes initially and so that’s why the bill was out of wack.

Now getting back to the idea of dual citizenship, try to put yourself in their shoes. Say you were working in some foreign land and were in trouble of some sort. Would you not want the same rights and priviledges as other Canadians? What if you worked all your life in Canada, payed every tax dollar owed to the government, and happened to be on vacation in Lebanon? Do you not deserve to be rescued then? Of course, there will always be people who will abuse the system. Like get immigration to Canada, become a citizen and then live abroad, meanwhile enjoying the benefits of being a Canadian citizen. But these cases are few and very rare and revamping the whole Dual citizenship system like some have suggested is a bigger waste of my tax dollar then anything.

Anyways, what are your thoughts?