Hundreds of thousands of Canadians have signed a petition to revoke the citizenship of Elon Musk, who holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Canada. And, he appears to be a little upset about the idea.
“Canada is not a real country,” the senior advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump and tech billionaire said on X. The post was deleted soon after.
Those are bold words for someone who has kids with three Canadian women, has a Canadian mother, and lived in Canada.
But few people know that before he became an internationally known edge lord, Musk worked as a lumberjack in this very “not real” country.
According to the book Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Musk left his South Africa home at just 17 to move to Canada, where he lived and worked on his cousin’s farm in Waldeck, Saskatchewan.
He also became a Canadian citizen, as his mother, Maye Musk, was born in Regina. Musk’s grandmother was from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
In May 2017, Musk shared an old photo of him on X, then called Twitter, writing that it was taken “on my cousin’s farm in Canada at 17, wearing a hat on a hat.”
On my cousin’s farm in Canada at 17, wearing a hat on a hat pic.twitter.com/U96ClGz5gZ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 13, 2017
He later shared that he came to Canada in 1989 with around $2,500.
The book further mentions that he moved to Vancouver from Waldeck and got a job as a bonafide lumberjack, cutting logs with a chainsaw.
He then took a job as a boiler room cleaner at a lumber mill after searching for high-paying jobs. The gig paid him $18 an hour. He didn’t specify what the company was called.
He described the job as difficult and shared that many people quit.
“[You] put on this hazmat suit and then shimmy through this little tunnel that you can barely fit in. Then, you have to shovel, and you take the sand and goop and other residue, which is still steaming hot, and you have to shovel it through the same hole you came in through,” he noted.
“Someone else on the other side has to shovel it into a wheelbarrow. If you stay in there for more than 30 minutes, you get too hot and die. There is no escape,” he said.
Musk went on to have relationships and children with at least three Canadian women.
First, he married Canadian author Justine Wilson, whom he allegedly met while studying at Queen’s University in Ontario. They had six kids, five of whom survived.
The couple’s marriage ended in 2008. Then, he had a highly publicized relationship with musician Grimes (Claire Boucher) and had three kids — X Æ A-Xii, Exa Dark Sideræl and Techno Mechanicus.
Later, he had three kids with Shivon Zilis, the Markham, Ontario director of Neuralink, a neurotechnology company founded by Musk. Last year, he confirmed the birth of his third child with Zilis.
