Back to maiden name after being widowed to a U.S. citizen

I don't know if this is the appropriate place to ask this question, but everyone here has been so helpful in the past, and I can't seem to find and exact answer anywhere else I've searched.

Basically, I'm widowed, was married to a U.S. citizen, preparing to move back to Canada (Ontario) and want to go back to my maiden name. I've gathered that this name, on my Ontario birth certificate, is always considered my legal name and I may use it personally if I want to. (Even my SIN is still in my maiden name.) However, my college and professional degrees/associations are in my married name; do I now have to professionally go by my married name forever?? The marriage certificate is from the States, if that makes a difference.

ALSO:
According to Passport Canada, for a legal name change on your passport "Applicants who have changed their name cannot have a passport issued in their new name through the Simplified Passport Renewal Process....you must apply for a new passport." -- My question is, if your maiden name is ALWAYS your legal name, does going back to it count as a legal name change in the case of a passport?? (No info on this on their website.)

Without getting too bogged down as to what your legal name(s) are, were, or is, it really comes down to what it says on your legal documents.

If you applied for an SSN card with your married name, your DL uses your married name, then your married name is a legal name. You, in effect, cahnged your legal name by those actions.

So, your legal name is probably your married name -- in the US at any rate.

In canada, since you have had few dealings there, your legal name is the one on your passport. If you were to go get a Ontario DL, they would likely issue it in either name -- since you have legal docs in both. You could check with them to see which one would have primacy.

That issue aside, if you currently have a Cdn passport issued in your married name, and wish to change it back to your maiden name (regardless if it is or always was your legal name) you will have to go thru the UN-Simplified process.

The passport instructions are pretty clear on this: to use the simplified method your current Cdn passport : "Must have been issued under [your] current name."
http://www.ppt.gc.ca/cdn/ren.aspx?lang= ... ion=Canada

Personally, I prefer the "quebec model" in which women stick (and were even retroactively renamed) with their maiden name.

"Professionally" you can call yourself whatever you wish. Your degrees will always be in your married name.

"socially" you can call yourself what you want.