Ted Cruz will renounce his Canadian citizenship ... if in fact he is a Canadian citizen. The US senator made the announcement last night, after releasing his birth certificate yesterday in an effort to quiet his own "birther" controversy. His office initially wouldn't acknowledge the fact that his being born in Canada made Cruz a Canadian citizen (he's also a US citizen thanks to his American mother; his father is Cuban). And in his statement, Cruz explained that his mother told him as a kid that he could "choose to claim Canadian citizenship" if he wanted; he never did.
Cruz took no "affirmative steps" to establish Canadian citizenship, so "I assumed that was the end of the matter," the statement continues. "Now the Dallas Morning News says that I may technically have dual citizenship. Assuming that is true, then sure, I will renounce any Canadian citizenship. Nothing against Canada, but I'm an American by birth and as a US senator, I believe I should be only an American." Cruz—who is going through all this hoopla, presumably, to prep for a possible run for the presidency—adds that he left Canada at age 4 and has lived the rest of his life in the US, the AP reports. (More Ted Cruz stories.)