It was 2000 and a wide-eyed brunette named Anita was a young, single, American woman. The Independence, Miss., native just relocated to Utah to attend Brigham Young University’s fitness and nutrition program.
Not long after she started her undergrad, Anita met a quirky Canadian kid named Rob Anderson who was in the process of procuring a communications degree and was the starting goalie for the university’s hockey team.
The two began flirting and a short courtship ensued. Within three months they were married. One question remained, where to live: Canada or the United States?
For Anderson, an Edmonton native who was living in Airdrie, he felt a pull back to Alberta. Anita, who has Canadian roots from her Québécois great-grandparents, didn’t mind.
She can still recall vividly the first time arriving in Canada while she was dating Anderson, unsure of what to expect.
“I was expecting this big change,” she said. “I crossed the border and I see the McDonald’s and the Wal-Mart, and I’m like, ‘Wow, what unites us is far greater than what divides us.’”
Once she visited Airdrie, she was blown away with the City, its people and the nice, new communities.
“Of course, his family was here and that was a big attraction,” she added.
The couple didn’t head straight to Airdrie, however.
They moved to Edmonton where Anita finished her undergrad and Anderson earned a law degree.
By the time school was out for the young couple, they moved to Airdrie and made it their home.
Now, Anita works hard raising the couple’s four children and Anderson serves as the Airdrie-Chestermere MLA.
And while she had permanent citizenship six months after moving to Canada in 2003, it took a few years before Anita decided to apply to be an official citizen.
She had to wait about four-and-a-half years before becoming eligible for that citizenship.
“I tacked on a few extra years of mommy busyness and excuses,” said Anita.
A few weeks ago, she took the Canadian citizenship test to gauge her book knowledge of the country.
“I was really intimidated by it because the book is quite thick,” said Anita.
“It had so much information and I’m a real keener when it comes to studying for tests, so I was over prepared.”
She was the second person out of 100 to finish the test and promptly handed it in. On Aug. 18, she took the oath of a Canadian citizen at a ceremony in downtown Calgary and became a constituent of the Great White North.
“I love the U.S., it’s still my home, but I feel like I’m blessed to have two homes,” she said. “There’s so much Canada has that’s so unique.”
Her husband is also thankful the process is now complete.
“It just completes the whole transition of her life in the USA to Canada,” he said.
Anita, a self-proclaimed political junkie, is looking forward to making an X on next year’s provincial ballot since she wasn’t eligible to vote in last fall’s federal and civic elections.
“I think it’s an important duty to vote and I’m excited to vote in Canada,” she said.
“In some ways, she’s more actively involved politically than I am,” said Anderson.
While she is still legally allowed to vote in the United States by way of absentee ballot, she said she won’t.
“I feel like this is my home right now. I don’t feel a strong desire (to vote in the USA).”
Anita said one of her favourite aspects of the Canadian culture is its tolerance to diverse ethnicities and their traditions, as opposed to the United States’ melting pot method.
“The differences are what makes Canada great.”
