Canadian Nicolas Duchastel de Montrouge has lived in the US for 15 years, which like many of his expatriate countrymen now disqualifies him from voting in Canadian legislative elections.
Ahead of the next ballot on Monday next week, this has become a flashpoint after a court recently upheld a government policy that effectively prohibits Canadians from voting if they have lived abroad for more than five years.
To protest the loss of this “basic democratic right” and bring attention to the plight of 1.4 million expats like him, Duchastel presented himself to run against Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Photo: AP
The computer engineer said he has no illusions about upending Harper, who has been the lawmaker representing Calgary Southwest since 2002.
“I have nothing against Stephen Harper,” he said in a telephone interview from his Seattle home. “I just want to bring attention to the fact that every single Canadian should have the right to vote, regardless of where they live. Voting is a civic duty and I’m being prevented from doing my duty.”
Until 1993, most non-residents were unable to vote in Canadian elections, when Ottawa created a special mail-in ballot for expats who had lived outside Canada for less than five years and intended to return.
The five-year rule was struck down last year, but that decision was overturned in July by the Ontario Court of Appeal, effectively depriving half of all Canadians living abroad of the right to vote.
“Permitting all non-resident citizens to vote would allow them to participate in making laws that affect Canadian residents on a daily basis, but have little to no practical consequences for their own daily lives,” Justice George Strathy wrote. “This would erode the social contract and undermine the legitimacy of the laws.”
The decision provoked a backlash.
Actor Donald Sutherland lashed out in an op-ed saying: “I’m Canadian. There’s a maple leaf in my underwear somewhere. I have to restrain myself from saying ‘eh?’ ... but I can’t vote.”
University of Toronto researcher Semra Sevi pointed to “discomfort” with Canada’s best and brightest leaving the country.
“How do you celebrate Donald Sutherland, who chose a career that led him out of the country?” she asked, referring to the famous actor.
The Conservatives used this successfully against former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff in “just visiting” attack ads in the 2011 election.
The Harvard academic and human rights champion lost his seat, while the party that had governed for most of the last century finished third overall.
“Canadians are also sensitive to abuse of our citizenship,” Sevi said.
This was most apparent in 2006, when the government was called to rescue nearly 15,000 Canadian citizens living abroad and with few ties to the country from Lebanon, in the largest mass evacuation this country has ever mounted.
Afterward, Ottawa became openly concerned about outside influence in Canadian elections and started strictly enforcing the five-year rule.
However, an analysis of mail-in ballots shows Canadians have nothing to fear.
In the last election in 2011, according to Sevi, only 6,000 expats voted.
They might have influenced the outcome in only one race out of 308, in Nipissing-Timiskaming in Ontario.
It was won by 18 votes, and 20 expats voted in the electoral district where they had last lived before moving abroad.
Overall, expat voter turnout has always been very low, but was rising prior to 2006, before the government crackdown.
“We ignore them and pretend that they don’t exist,” Sevi said. “We need to engage Canadians abroad. It’s a mistake to see them as a liability rather than an asset.”
“The way to strengthen Canadian democracy is not to prohibit groups from voting,” echoed Mark Kersten, a researcher at the Munk School of Global Affairs in Toronto.
Kersten refuted a key argument in the court case that voters should have a stake in their choice of government.
“It’s complete rubbish because I don’t think people vote for only selfish reasons,” he said.
Many Canadians, for example, vote for healthcare policies that affect their elderly parents, or “support a compassionate welfare system on a principled belief in a fair distribution of wealth,” not to benefit from it themselves, he said.
Duchastel agrees.
The Internet has made it easier than ever to follow political campaigns from afar.
“I watch the debates, I read the news online,” Duchastel said.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number