P.E.I. archives handling huge surge in requests

P.E.I. archives handling huge surge in requests — mostly from Americans

'Lost Canadian' legislation allows citizenship to those descended from a Canadian

Why P.E.I.’s public archives is dealing with hundreds of requests for help

Bill Gammell has always had a special relationship with Canada.

His parents were naturalized U.S. citizens, but his father was born in Nova Scotia, his mother in Prince Edward Island. Three of his four grandparents were born in P.E.I. He has a summer home in Eglington, which he would learn was on the same land owned by his great-great-grandfather.

Gammell lives in Tolland, Conn., but he is one of thousands of people, mostly Americans, who are now applying for Canadian citizenship.

"I think we live in sort of a less-stable world than it used to be. Relations between countries and alliances seem to be eroding," he said.

"The way I think of it is, a second passport is a good thing. I think it just adds a sense of security for people. At least that's the way I approach it."

Since Parliament's adoption of "Lost Canadian" legislation last year, the number of people who have received certificates rose nearly 50 per cent between April 1 and May 31.

Bill C-3 allows Canadian citizenship to those who can prove they have a Canadian ancestor, even if that means going back several generations. Its adoption came after the courts ruled limiting citizenship to the first generation born outside the country was too restrictive.

Gammell said he applied in February 2025 and received a notification the next month that his application is in process. He said the last time he checked in July, about 2,500 people were in front of him to be processed, with around 115,000 in line behind him.

"The word value is the thing … my personal values align closely with Canada to this point," he said.

"Right now, there's a certain amount of divisiveness in the United States that I think is unhealthy."

Liam Richardson, an archivist with the provincial Public Archives and Records Office, said that in January he noticed "a huge boom" in requests related to citizenship.

Previously, he said the office would see three to four certification requests a year. A count in May found he had already certified more than 5,000 pages of records.

"The surge is exponential. Like, we're averaging a year's worth of requests every month," he said.

"There was a surge in our office when the New York Times ran an article about this situation saying that this had been opened up. There was a massive surge. You can kind of pinpoint different events in the States to an increase in these record requests."

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Richardson said he doesn't believe obtaining citizenship will mean an influx of people moving to the province, calling it a "backup plan for a lot of people."

"People tell us what their plans are with this stuff all the time," he said.

"A good amount of people have now gotten the bug to find more about their ancestors and stuff, which we love to see."

Gammell's decision to apply came from what he called "the sort of rhetoric" he has seen in the United States, including from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has said in the past that Canada should become that country's 51st state, which Gammell called "infuriating."

Still, he agrees the applications are unlikely to result in a flood of people rushing into Canada.

"They have no real intentions of accessing or exploiting Canada's social system," he said.

"I guess it ultimately comes back to, yeah, there's some practical things there, but it's the emotional thing of being able to call myself a Canadian."

Lucas McInnis is a journalist at CBC Prince Edward Island. He can be reached at lucas.mcinnis@cbc.ca.

With files from Camryn Farquharson