Dion's mother was born a French citizen. He received French citizenship automatically. But the son of one of Canada's foremost intellectuals, his first prolonged absence was when he went to Paris to do his PhD and won France's highest award for his thesis, the first foreigner in his field to do so. He could have stayed and had a lovely life as an intellectual in France, working at the highest levels. The work visa would have been no problem as he already had the citizenship, if he wished to use it. But he never bothered to get the passport. Instead he came straight back to Canada after his PhD. He taught at Moncton. Then Montreal. Still became top international thinker on public administration. In 1990, when on a rare year's sabbatical at Brookings, he wrote his first major article on Constitution/intergovernmental issues. Went on to participate in most heated Meech, Charlottetown & referendum debates, defending & promoting Canadian federalism in the most venomous conditions, flayed in the francophone media for doing so. Then, against his family's wishes, he was eventually persuaded to leave academe by Mr. & Mrs. Chrétien, after much wooing, to further defend & promote Canadian federalism. He took the job knowing what he was about to suffer, unprecedented vilification by former friends & the french media. When no-one else wanted to, or was able to, he stood in front of the toughest crowds, despite an array of the most dangerous threats, and took on & defeated all comers, whether in verbal or written argument. Then was repaid by being dumped from cabinet because nationalist "Pablo-Lapierre" faction of Quebec Liberals were ascendant and said he was old news, a liability. He did not flee back to academe, at home or abroad. He fought to keep his constituency when "Pablo-Lapierres" campaigned to unseat. And when party was in trouble in 2004 election, he was the one called upon to rally hardcore federalist vote in QC and save core seats, despite treatment. He did so. Then, Minister of Environment, he presented first plan that would lead to real carbon pricing in some form. He led UN conference to real, improbable success in Montreal. And you know the rest.
Some people, despite their manifold talents & opportunities abroad, who could, if they wished, refer honestly to themselves as citizens of a foreign power, rather refuse to accept foreign identities, prefer to return to their homeland, and participate in the public life of their homeland, decade after decade, under even the most intolerable conditions, when it would be so easy to take off and pontificate from afar. Some people are good & brave & honourable & true Canadian patriots, who understand the country as only those who have stayed and fought over the decades can do.
And some are not. There is a huge difference between choosing to make one's life in Canada, whether as an immigrant, who gives up everything to come here, or as a high-flier who chooses to stay, and one who is born Canadian and chooses to spend the majority of their life outside the country, not because it's their duty as a public servant, but so as to "play the Palace" and achieve status in the wider world.
Dion suffered ridiculous, counter-logical attacks on his patriotism from the start of his leadership (French double agent? Too French in manner?). One cannot say the same of others.
Sloppy thinking leads to poor justifications of unpatriotic, uncanadian conduct, if any can be found. Or has Eurasia always been at war with Oceania?
