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Photo: Thomas Andersen via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
File No. 469921 · Adjudicated
John Kay
Musician — Steppenwolf, 'Born to Be Wild', 'Magic Carpet Ride'
Born
1944
Birthplace
TILSIT, GERMANY
Citizenships
DE
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 soilI. Origin
Born on Canadian soil — no
TILSIT, GERMANY
Canadian parentage — no
No Canadian parents on record
Citizenship on record — no
None on record
II. Residency
Formative years spent in Canada — yes
Raised — Canada
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
Has never brought it up
Canada claims them back — not scored
Claimed, enthusiastically
Fun fact
His band The Sparrows was a fixture on Toronto's Yorkville scene in the mid-60s before morphing into Steppenwolf in Los Angeles
The verdict
Born in wartime Germany, moved to Canada as a kid and cut his teeth in the Toronto music scene with The Sparrows before heading south to form Steppenwolf and give the world 'Born to Be Wild.' Canada shaped his early musical journey, but he became an American citizen and rock legend. Still, those Toronto years left their mark.
Adjudicated by
The Standings Committee
Status
Final — appealable
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References — en.wikipedia.org