My journey is now complete: I was welcomed into the Canadian family last Friday (March 16th) in Ottawa with these amazing and moving words from the oath administrator (he was a decorated war hero).
"Until this moment, you were guests in this country. Now you are hosts !!"
WOW !!! And yes, I shall now take that responsibility very seriously and help others like I was helped.
Here are some other thoughts...
Thank you Amb John MacCallum for initiating C-6. Sorry you were not here to see the fruits of your labor. And Thank You to Minister Hussen and the staff at IRCC. Yes, I'm still amazed that even with an additional 40K applicants in Oct, I got through the whole process in 5 months. Amazing work indeed !! And Thank You PM Trudeau: In the debates, you said "A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian" and after getting elected, you backed your words with deeds and earned my vote (even though I lean Conservative).
And now to the rest...
1. Jason "Fatty" Kenney who almost threw out my PR application to solve a backlog
2. Chris "let me shut the doors after my Danish wife gets in" Alexander who implemented C-51
3. Stephen "Lucifer" Harper who hated immigrants and wouldn't blink an eye to torture !
4. Linda Frum who single handedly delayed C-6 for more than a year (how dare you, specially after some of your own family perished in the Holocaust)
Guess what Fatty, Chrissy, Luci and Frum ?
I'm now IN (with another 250K) and
I will vote against you lot. The joke is on you CONS !!! Haha.
Finally, let me plagiarize the MasterCard ad:
Photocopies of Docs = $ 5
Citizenship Photos @ Canadian Superstore = $ 16
Citizenship Application Fee = $ 630 (again, it was Fatty who increased it !)
Mail-in (Canada Post) = $ 22
Parking in Downtown Ottawa (2 times) = $ 25
Canadian Citizenship = Priceless
What else is "Priceless" ? (1) A chance to vote against the CONS and (2) Forgiving them !!!
For the rest, we have C-6, which I dubbed
"From Sea(C) to Sea(C) to Sea(C), a (C)anadian is a (C)anadian is a (C)anadian"
No more checking ECAS 4 times a day (Even deleted the link to the tracker).
Glad to be part of the Canadian Mosaic. This truly is an amazing country.
Good luck every one !!