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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Becoming a Canadian citizen a proud day for my buddy, Joe
It takes a lot to make my buddy, Joe Grande, cry.
But there he was early one morning last week, standing on a crowded stage at Vincent Massey Collegiate, blubbering away, big fat tears of joy rolling down his cherubic 52-year-old face.
I guess becoming a Canadian citizen will do that to a guy.
"I cried like a baby," Joe told me Saturday night as we sat in Mona Lisa Ristorante, the Corydon Avenue landmark where he and his family have been dishing up soul-satisfying pizza and pasta for almost 30 years.
"I didn't realize how important it was to me to be a Canadian," the gregarious restaurateur, decked out in a Maple Leaf T-shirt and an umbrella-style sun hat festooned with Canadian flags, said thoughtfully.
"It was pretty important, I guess. I'm pretty excited now. It feels like I have more freedom.
"I feel good telling people I'm Canadian. I guess I didn't tell people that I wasn't."
The federal government estimates about 170,000 people will become new Canadian citizens this year. And finally, 46 years after arriving here "on a big black boat from Italy," my buddy, Joe, is one of them.
For the record, I've known Joe a long time. Our daughters went to school together, trick-or-treated together and played on the same soccer team. I always assumed Joe was as Canadian as five-pin bowling.
I think Joe thought he was, too. "I felt like I was a Canadian anyway," he shrugged. "I'm more Canadian than a lot of Canadians here."
The burning question, for me and everyone Joe knows, is why it took him so long to make it official.
"I could work and do everything I needed to do without changing," said Joe, born Giuseppe Grande in the small village of Amato in Calabria, a region in southern Italy.
I suspect the real reason is that, like me, Joe just takes his time getting around to things. But all that changed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, which made it a lot more complicated to travel outside Canada.
"My permanent resident card expired and it was hard to get back into Canada," he confessed. "They said: 'Next time, you're not getting back in!' "
So, facing mounting pressure from his wife Alfina -- "I've been bugging him about this since we got married 25 years ago" -- his three daughters and stern border guards, Joe spent two months studying online, then tackled the Canadian citizenship exam.
"It was a tough one," he said, rolling his eyes. "There were strange questions. The toughest one was when they asked how many Canadians died in the Second World War (about 45,000)."
To satisfy my inner patriot my pal Joe is truly Canadian to the core, I asked him to name the last team from our home and native land to win the Stanley Cup.
His look of joy turned to a frown. "Should I say Edmonton?" he finally squeaked, giving me a pleading look. Informed Montreal was the correct answer, he blurted: "If it was multiple choice, I would have got it right."
Whatever. On Saturday night, more than 100 of Joe's friends and family celebrated at Mona Lisa amid red and white balloons, red and white jelly beans and red and white wines to formally welcome a proud Canuck into the fold.
The emotional highlight came when "Joe Canada" led the patriotic revellers in a stirring rendition of our national anthem. Almost none of us could remember all the words.
It couldn't have been more Canadian.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 23, 2012 A2
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