Creating Canadians
How a 1947 law bolstered national identity.
It was an act that helped to define a nation of Canadians — literally. The Canadian Citizenship Act, which came into effect on January 1, 1947, officially created Canadian citizenship. Until that point, all people born in Canada, as well as naturalized immigrants, had been legally considered “British subjects domiciled in Canada.” The new act also entitled married women to their own nationality, rather than getting it through their spouses. The act was replaced by the Citizenship Act in 1977. In 2014, a new Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act was adopted to address deficiencies in the previous acts.