Ted Cruz has declared his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination for the 2016 American presidential election. He is unlikely to win.

He is the first to declare his candidacy. Voting day is still 20 months away. Historically those who declare first don’t capture the prize. I suspect party members become tired of them over the long haul.

Cruz’s candidacy is getting a fair amount of media attention in Canada because he used to be Canadian. He renounced his Canadian citizenship a few years back, setting the stage for what everyone expected to be a run for the White House.

Cruz was born in Calgary Alberta, to an American mother and Cuban father. Being born in Canada makes you automatically a Canadian citizen. Being born to an American mother apparently automatically makes you a US citizen. But dual citizens can’t be president, so Cruz renounced his Canadian citizenship.

I won’t question his wisdom in doing that, other than to note that we have better health care, a better economy and greater social harmony than our neighbours to the south. Ted Cruz might have found he liked it better here, but he never gave us a chance.

Which is probably just as well. The media coverage of his announcement convinced me that, though he may have been born here, Ted Cruz was never a Canadian. He never learned that in polite society we don’t mix religion and politics.

The United States has a constitutional separation of church and state, yet it seems much of the time religion drives its politics. Canada, with a head of state who is also a head of a Christian church, rarely sees any indication of faith from those in public life. As a result, most Canadians would not be able to name the religious affiliation of Prime Minister Stephen Harper or his predecessors. (For the record, Harper is a member of a Christian and Missionary Alliance church, making him the first evangelical Christian to be head of government since the early 1960s. The majority of the prime ministers for the past 50 years have been Roman Catholic)

Ted Cruz makes no secret of his evangelical Christian faith. His campaign kickoff was held at a Christian school, Liberty University, founded by the Reverend Jerry Falwell, who also founded the Moral Majority lobby group.

In the United States such a campaign launch, complete with Christian choruses, is pretty much the norm for any serious candidate, especially a Republican. In Canada such ostentatious religiosity would reveal a political death wish.

The two countries have a shared border and a very different political culture. It is too early yet to know who Ted Cruz will have to beat for the Republican nomination, or who the Democratic candidate will be. One thing is sure though, whoever it is, he or she will be a self-declared Christian.

There are times when I wonder if Canada wouldn’t benefit from a little more intersection between faith and politics. Canadian politicians almost never talk about their religious beliefs. Too often we have had politicians declare on issues such as abortion that they were elected by the people so they will give the people what they want, despite their personal convictions. I find that sad.

If you are willing to compromise your beliefs for political expediency I question just how deeply held those beliefs are. And why should I be willing to trust any politician whose actions are diametrically opposed to what they profess to believe in? Give me someone who lives their beliefs – I can respect that even if I don’t share the particular world view.

From what I have read about him, Ted Cruz is a man who articulates what he believes in, both in terms of his personal faith and his political views. I admit I haven’t looked closely at either; I won’t have a vote in November 2016, so I tend not to form an opinion about early candidates whose names probably won’t be on the final ballot. At least though Americans will have a clear idea of who the man is and what he stands for. I can say that about very few of his Canadian counterparts.