Prof seeks Canadian citizenship as Trump ’refugee’

ST. JOHN’S • An Americanborn biology professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland intends to officially become a Canadian citizen after living in the country for three decades, calling himself a “political refugee” of Donald Trump’s presidency.

For nearly 30 years, Steve Carr has straddled the border as an American working in Canada, but the California native says Trump’s election pushed him to seek citizenship here. Carr, whose mother hails from Stratford, Ont., says he has applied for Canadian citizenship as “insurance” against Trump’s hard line immigration policy.

As a longtime permanent resident of Canada, the transition to dual citizenship is in a sense a formality, but has nonetheless taken a toll on Carr, who sees being American as part of his identity.

“I am a patriotic American … My way of assessing things is heavily tied up with American history,” says Carr. “I am, at this point, a refugee, and things might go quite bad very quickly.”

Carr has flirted with becoming a naturalized citizen since moving to Newfoundland for a teaching gig in 1987 but, in a streak of American independence, says he couldn’t bring himself to pledge loyalty to a British monarch.

“The image of raising my hand and swearing an Oath of Allegiance to the Queen just stuck in my throat,” Carr says, adding his calculus changed last November while he watched the U.S. election results in disbelief.