My very belated 2 cents:
Checked the following website:
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/resources/tools/cit/overview/who.asp
- They were born outside Canada and one of their parents was a Canadian citizen at the time of their birth because the parent was either born in Canada or naturalized in Canada. Then this person in this case is the first generation born outside Canada;
My take: Your father was definitely a Canadian citizen!
- A person may be a Canadian citizen if they were born outside Canada from January 1, 1947, up to and including April 16, 2009, to a Canadian parent who was also born outside Canada to a Canadian parent (in this case, the person is the second or subsequent generation born outside Canada).
My take: You may be a Canadian citizen
Yes, that website indicates who is a Canadian citizen
now, following the 2009 changes to the Citizenship Act. We know that his father would have become a Canadian citizen in 2009, if he had been living. The OP's question was whether it matters that his father died before he inherited Canadian citizenship, and I replied that it does not.
As to your second point, a person born abroad to a
Canadian citizen before 2009, no matter what generation, may be Canadian citizen, BUT the OP's parent was not a Canadian citizen when the OP was born. The OP's father was (apparently) not born abroad in wedlock to a Canadian father, and therefore did not become a Canadian citizen on January 1, 1947.
However, the OP likely IS a Canadian citizen now because of an exception to the second generation rule, which states that if a person's parent was born abroad to a Canadian citizen (including, pre-1947, a British subject born in Canada) while the parent's parent was in Crown service, that person (the grandchild) is a Canadian citizen.
