Most of us here can handle the last century. I'm talking about 2014, right?
So there's nothing new here. I live in a part of the world where, quite frankly, there are a lot of American citizens, quite a few dual citizens, and some American citizens by accident who happen to have been born in the U.S. I think we have to look at reality here. The idea that somehow this is going to affect us all is simply not true. It's not going to affect us all. This was targeted because Americans base their tax compliance on citizenship and not on residency. Obviously, if you're a Canadian citizen living in the States and have a residence and investments there, you're going to pay taxes in the States, but to make sure that their citizens are compliant with their taxation regime.... This is not something that the Canadian government made up. This is something that the Americans decided a long time ago and are enforcing.
For us to suggest that somehow we're complicit in this is further out there than I can think. Quite frankly, we have no right under the law to interfere in American tax legislation. Am I incorrect in saying that? What right does Canada have to tell the Americans how they're going to write their tax policy? We don't have to think it's the right thing to do. We don't have to agree with it, but quite frankly we have no right to intervene. There are individuals—again in my part of the world, many of them are friends of mine—who are dual citizens. They're dual citizens, though, for a reason. They're dual citizens because they either work in the States, they cross the border on a regular basis, or they have investments in the U.S. With that dual citizenship comes some responsibility to comply with the American tax rules. So this is not about the Canadian name on the passport. It's about a dual citizen who happens to be an American as well and who, therefore, have to comply with American tax rules. Is it more complicated than that or am I oversimplifying it?