So yesterday, there was an interesting development - a representative from the MP of my local riding pro-actively reached out to say they've been keeping tabs on my file since my original request. While they seem to not be able to do much once it hits the oath step, it
does seem that reaching out to them and having them look up my file
did have some influence on the speed/priority of the application.
So perhaps that might be a way to at least get some attention for folks. A welcome surprise, nonetheless.