KALISPELL -- Mary Ann Lorette-Rust didn't pay much attention when a sudden hankering for a cold Molson beer took hold of her recently.

"I was just thirsty," she figured.

And she didn't notice when she started thinking in centimeters instead of inches, theatres instead of theaters, curling instead of baseball. If her behaviour or humour had changed, none of her friends mentioned it.

But in retrospect, she said, that frosty beer from the Great White North was quite obviously a sign.

Lorette-Rust had, without even knowing it, woken up Canadian.

"It's pretty bizarre," she said.

All over the world but especially in the United States people woke up Canadian on April 17. That was the day the Canadian government penned a quick change to the country's Citizenship Act.

As of that day, anyone who was born in Canada but relinquished citizenship when they moved to another country and anyone whose parents were born in Canada, became automatic citizens.

For perhaps a quarter-million people, "what a difference a day makes."

Those are the first words in a 90-second video advertising the change. It was produced and distributed by the Canadian government -- not on television, but on YouTube -- which demonstrates how painfully hip Canada really is.

In the clip, a largish man in a blandish room marks off April 16 on his calendar, and then tucks into bed. When he wakes -- "what a difference a day makes" -- his room is transformed.

He throws back his comforter now decked white with a bright red maple leaf and leaps up to find hockey sticks and skis in the corner, a curling trophy bedside, a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II on his wall. A hockey player waves from across the room, and when the new Canadian throws open the door, he's greeted by a handsome Mountie.

Canada's federal government didn't miss a single stereotype -- there's a beaver and a moose and a cup of poutine. (That's pronounced poo-teen, and it's french fries with cheese curds and gravy, tastier than it sounds.) The only thing missing is Doug McKenzie himself.

Canada, apparently, is a country that knows itself well enough to laugh at itself, which is saying something in today's world. The ad also provides something of a fresh definition of "Canadianism," as opposed to the default definition, which is to say "not American."

Scroll through the comments beneath the YouTube clip and it's apparent that not everyone wants to wake up Canadian, but as Angelsea21 responds: "Dude, if you haven't tried waking up Canadian, you wouldn't know, eh. It's almost as good as waking up with a Canadian."

It is, perhaps, as historian John Bartlet Brebner said, "Americans are benevolently ignorant about Canada, while Canadians are malevolently well informed about the United States."

Think lumberjacks and fur traders, dogsleds and going oot and aboot in the boot. Think zed, not z. Think "O Canada, the True North strong and free!"

"I like Canadians," posted Jabberwookkee. "Besides, it's better than waking up Texan."

Mary Ann Lorette-Rust couldn't agree more. When not craving Molson, she's a medical staff coordinator at Missoula's St. Patrick Hospital. Four years ago, after President George Bush was elected to a second term, she actually looked into moving north, only to find Canadian citizenship wasn't so easy to come by.

Until, of course, April 17.

Lorette-Rust's dad was from Nova Scotia, up in northeastern Canada, and that accident of birth now makes her an automatic citizen.

She and her dad are exactly the kind of "lost" Canadians the government has been looking for. From 1947 until 1977, Canadian law required people to give up their citizenship if they moved to another country. This latest change looks to fix that.

Calling the old rules "outdated legislation," Canada's Citizenship, Immigration and Multicultural Minister Jason Kenney said the change means his government "can take concrete action to help many who had their citizenship questioned in the past."

(In 2007, when the United States implemented rules requiring passports, many who thought they were Canadian learned they were not, providing part of the push for this rule change.)

"British Columbia is looking pretty good right now, "Lorette-Rust said. "Curling's starting to look good, too. I think I'm a natural."

Margaret Carson's a natural, too, but she's not moving anytime soon.

"I'm 89 years old, and I'm pretty content to stay where I am," the Missoula resident and newly minted Canadian citizen said.

Carson was born in Detroit to a Canadian father and an American mother, "and I lived up there for 11 years, before they told me I had to become a landed immigrant or leave."

She left. But now, it seems, they want her back.

"I've always felt that we should be one country," Carson said, "and I'm glad we're getting closer. But I'm staying in Missoula."

As to learning hockey, "now why would I do that?" she wondered. "I'm 89, for heaven's sake."

Waking up Canadian or as they say in Quebec, Se Reveiller Canadien, is surely in the eye of the beholder. Bilingual multiculturalism and parliamentary democracy aren't for everyone, even if you are the second-largest country in the world.

(That's in terms of wild-open acres, of course. Canada is home to just 33 million people, compared to about 303 million in the United States.)

The new immigration law, not surprisingly, leaves many questions unanswered for those who woke up so suddenly Canadian.

Most new citizens seem to want to know if they can now get socialized health care, and the answer to that is only if you move north for at least six months or so.

Lorette-Rust is considering doing just that, in fact, but first she'll have to find a way to earn a paycheque there.

"It's worth looking into," she said. "I've always thought Canada was a great place, filled with great people."

Greater than ever, maybe, now that she's one of them, eh?