Zach LarkinsIS IT FAIR?
This little debate has been in the news for some time, but it seems to be making greater waves as of late as we look forward to a provincial election this fall and a federal one at any time. At issue is whether or not non-citizens should have the right to vote.
In particular it is making more headlines in Toronto than anywhere else, but like a snowball rolling down a hill, it will eventually gather enough steam to be taken very seriously. Toronto Mayor David Miller, along with some other elected officials, is all for the idea. He claims it will bring more "diversity" to local government. It certainly would. While the Ontario assembly would be responsible for any necessary legal changes, it is only the provincial New Democrats, the party most likely to adopt the idea, that are currently trying to decide on a policy position for the fall election. Mayor Miller, being an NDP supporter is gung-ho as he realizes he has done nothing for Toronto in his two terms in office, save to spend it into an ever increasing pit of debt, and might well need the votes of non-citizens at best and illegals at worst to save his bacon in the next campaign.
That being said, I feel it's a degradation to the citizens of the country who are allowed to vote in municipal, provincial and federal elections. I take great offence at the fact that this idea even gets as much as a nodding recognition.
I am an immigrant. I had to renounce any ties to my home country, give up any benefits they may have bestowed upon me, answer a detailed questionnaire about Canada and, with my hand on a Bible, swear allegiance to Queen and country before I was granted the right to vote. I take that privilege very seriously and, even knowing what a sham politics is, will brave all sorts of inclement weather to cast my ballot. Our veterans fought and died to give me that right and I don't intend to let them down.
My wife is an immigrant. She is now a permanent resident of Canada and can do all the same things I can. Except vote. And rightfully so, I say. She is very outspoken and rails at politics and politicians probably more than I do. But she can't do anything about it if she can't vote. I tell her if she didn't vote, she's got no right to bitch, and even if that falls on deaf ears, she knows I've got a very valid point. She is studying for her citizenship even as I write this.
There is already precious little left of Canadian citizenship aside from the exclusive electoral rights it endows; and the citizenship requirements in the Ontario Municipal Elections Act are not very well policed as it is. In our last election, if you weren't included on the enumeration roll, all you had to do was show up at a polling station, show the returning officer the barest of ID (a library card would have sufficed) and off you went to vote. This is shameful.
Non-citizens already participate in, dominating in some cases, the nomination procedures that underpin our federal and provincial politics. In effect, they are already voting by proxy. Welfare entitlements are generally available on an "if you're here, you're eligible" basis, and just how many new non-citizens do we have who are not on welfare? The Supreme Court view lately has been to erase all but the finest distinctions in the government's duties toward non-citizens when it comes to due process and other civil liberties. Voting could well be their next target.
Supporters of "more inclusive" voting at the municipal level ask whether it is fair to exclude non-citizens from participation in the oldest form of democracy, but that is akin to asking whether it is fair to privilege citizens over non-citizens in any way at all. This is a country, folks, not a warm, fuzzy, feel good, group hug. The concept of citizenship is based on the fact that the rights and responsibilities allocated by a society have to be limited to some defined group of individuals. The alternative of treating anyone who happens to have two feet on Canadian soil as if they've formally committed themselves to our nation might suggest that Canada isn't a country but a mere landmass.
Immigrants choose to come to Canada under a certain framework of law. Not one of them who wants to vote in a Canadian election has any good reason not to know how to go about earning the privilege, or go about doing so.
Sources: Editorial Non-citizens Shouldn't Vote The National Post
In particular it is making more headlines in Toronto than anywhere else, but like a snowball rolling down a hill, it will eventually gather enough steam to be taken very seriously. Toronto Mayor David Miller, along with some other elected officials, is all for the idea. He claims it will bring more "diversity" to local government. It certainly would. While the Ontario assembly would be responsible for any necessary legal changes, it is only the provincial New Democrats, the party most likely to adopt the idea, that are currently trying to decide on a policy position for the fall election. Mayor Miller, being an NDP supporter is gung-ho as he realizes he has done nothing for Toronto in his two terms in office, save to spend it into an ever increasing pit of debt, and might well need the votes of non-citizens at best and illegals at worst to save his bacon in the next campaign.
That being said, I feel it's a degradation to the citizens of the country who are allowed to vote in municipal, provincial and federal elections. I take great offence at the fact that this idea even gets as much as a nodding recognition.
I am an immigrant. I had to renounce any ties to my home country, give up any benefits they may have bestowed upon me, answer a detailed questionnaire about Canada and, with my hand on a Bible, swear allegiance to Queen and country before I was granted the right to vote. I take that privilege very seriously and, even knowing what a sham politics is, will brave all sorts of inclement weather to cast my ballot. Our veterans fought and died to give me that right and I don't intend to let them down.
My wife is an immigrant. She is now a permanent resident of Canada and can do all the same things I can. Except vote. And rightfully so, I say. She is very outspoken and rails at politics and politicians probably more than I do. But she can't do anything about it if she can't vote. I tell her if she didn't vote, she's got no right to bitch, and even if that falls on deaf ears, she knows I've got a very valid point. She is studying for her citizenship even as I write this.
There is already precious little left of Canadian citizenship aside from the exclusive electoral rights it endows; and the citizenship requirements in the Ontario Municipal Elections Act are not very well policed as it is. In our last election, if you weren't included on the enumeration roll, all you had to do was show up at a polling station, show the returning officer the barest of ID (a library card would have sufficed) and off you went to vote. This is shameful.
Non-citizens already participate in, dominating in some cases, the nomination procedures that underpin our federal and provincial politics. In effect, they are already voting by proxy. Welfare entitlements are generally available on an "if you're here, you're eligible" basis, and just how many new non-citizens do we have who are not on welfare? The Supreme Court view lately has been to erase all but the finest distinctions in the government's duties toward non-citizens when it comes to due process and other civil liberties. Voting could well be their next target.
Supporters of "more inclusive" voting at the municipal level ask whether it is fair to exclude non-citizens from participation in the oldest form of democracy, but that is akin to asking whether it is fair to privilege citizens over non-citizens in any way at all. This is a country, folks, not a warm, fuzzy, feel good, group hug. The concept of citizenship is based on the fact that the rights and responsibilities allocated by a society have to be limited to some defined group of individuals. The alternative of treating anyone who happens to have two feet on Canadian soil as if they've formally committed themselves to our nation might suggest that Canada isn't a country but a mere landmass.
Immigrants choose to come to Canada under a certain framework of law. Not one of them who wants to vote in a Canadian election has any good reason not to know how to go about earning the privilege, or go about doing so.
Sources: Editorial Non-citizens Shouldn't Vote The National Post
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