Membership has its benefits. Except when it doesn’t. That’s what more than a million Canadians living abroad are learning now that they have been told they cannot vote in this fall’s federal election.
It stems from a court challenge to a federal law in the Ontario Court of Appeal.
We have a hard time with the decision.
The court reasoned that expats don’t have as much of a stake in the outcome of elections, and therefore accepting their ballots would harm Canada’s democracy. We could think of a number of things that are harming our democracy right now and “too many voters” isn’t one of them.
What’s more, we’d argue Canadians whose talents have taken them abroad most certainly do still have a stake in elections in their home and native land, especially if they continue to hold a passport or pay taxes.
Expats also tend to have extended families and loved ones back home and they may also want to have a say in the shape of the country they are most likely to return to.
Ask someone in drought-stricken Los Angeles if they have an interest in climate-change policy.
Canadian actor Donald Sutherland won’t be shy to tell you. The Order of Canada appointee, who now finds himself a man without a country, wrote a to-the-point response published in the Globe and Mail. It’s even better if you read it in his dulcet voice. It’s not our democracy the Conservatives are trying to protect, he argues, but rather their own electoral fortunes.
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