Scrapping limit on voting abroad sparks interest among Canadian expats
Credit to Author: Derrick Penner| Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2019 01:21:53 +0000
For Allison Gold, an expat living in England for seven years, the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in January to allow Canadians who have lived abroad for longer than five years to vote in federal elections came as a relief.
“I think it’s a duty to society to vote,” she wrote via a direct message, and “while we’ve built a life here (in the United Kingdom), I will always have ties to Canada.
Gold, who works for an arts charity in London, still considers Canada home. It is where her closest friends and family live, so she will cast a ballot via mail in the Barrie-Springwater-Oro Medonte riding in Ontario.
Gold isn’t alone in her excitement. As of Sept. 13, 19,784 Canadians living in other countries had registered with Elections Canada to receive mail-in ballots, mostly from the United States and United Kingdom, but also from New Zealand, Japan and Germany.
That compares with 15,603 who registered on the international register of electors in 2015, according to elections Canada, and 10,733 who voted from abroad in 2011.
Chief electoral officer Stephane Perrault said on Tuesday it was estimated the international register would hit 30,000 for this election, “so at this point, it seems that the numbers are what we though they would be.”
Perrault said that given the timing, the next week to 10 days “is pretty much the final stretch” for Canadians abroad to register, considering the time it takes to receive and then return a ballot by Elections Canada’s deadline of 6 p.m. ET on election day, Oct. 21.
Figuring out how many Canadians live abroad and where is a little bit more complicated.
Global Affairs Canada does not track the number, according to a spokesperson, but the 2006 Census counted 2.8 million Canadians living abroad. Some 300,000 of those were estimated to be living in Hong Kong, according to a report from the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
To be eligible to vote from abroad, Canadians must be 18 on voting day and have lived in Canada at some point in the past. They would be assigned a riding based on their last Canadian address. Voters can apply online to receive a special ballot by mail.
Applicants must provide a copy of eligible ID, which includes pages two and three of a passport, citizenship card or a birth certificate.
The five-year limit wouldn’t have hit aspiring film maker Richard Lalonde, who moved to Japan about a year ago from Saskatchewan, after living in Vancouver for 10 years, but he is glad it is gone.
“It gives more validation to our citizenship as Canadians,” Lalonde said. “All citizens should have the right to vote, even if they are no longer residents.”
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