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Portrait
File No. 206699  ·  Adjudicated

Ernie Coombs

TV Host — Mr. Dressup, CBC children's television, Tickle Trunk

Born
1927
Birthplace
LEWISTON, UNITED STATES
Citizenships
US / CA

Canadianness Score

🍁🍁🍁🍁🍁
2.0/ 5
Weighted across 6 scored criteria

Designation

Gets Yearly Letters from the CRA 📬

Not born or raised there — but the CRA always knows where to find them.

Scorecard

Path B — not born on Canadian soil
I. Origin
Born on Canadian soil — no
LEWISTON, UNITED STATES
Canadian parentage — no
No Canadian parents on record
Citizenship on record — yes
Held — by descent or naturalisation
II. Residency
Formative years spent in Canada — no
Raised elsewhere
Lived in Canada by choice — yes
Residency on record as an adult
Worked or filmed in Canada — yes
Credits filed north of the 49th
III. Cultural evidence — not scored
Section III is recorded for the file only. It carries no weight under either path.
Publicly claims to be Canadian — not scored
Says so, out loud
Canada claims them back — not scored
Claimed, enthusiastically

Fun fact

Worked alongside Fred Rogers in the early days of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood before moving to Canada in 1963 to create his own beloved children's show.

The verdict

Born in Maine but became Mr. Dressup for nearly 30 years on CBC, teaching generations of Canadian kids about kindness, creativity, and the magic of the Tickle Trunk. Canada claimed him so thoroughly that most Canadians assumed he was born here — he even became a citizen in 1994 and received the Order of Canada.

Adjudicated by
The Standings Committee
Status
Final — appealable
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References — en.wikipedia.org