Election Deception
by Pete Cunningham
*As printed in the The Newspaper: U of T's Independent Weekly, 1/26/2006
 

I voted.  That’s right, I voted and you need to know about it.  Why should anyone care that I joined over 13 million Canadians on Monday and voted?  Why does my vote make a difference?  I don’t believe anyone should be overly concerned with what riding I voted in, who I voted for, or even what issues I found paramount to my decision making process.  With the omission of such details my vote should still be topic for discussion because it never should have been allowed to happen in the first place.  You see, unlike many enthusiastic Molson drinkers, I am not Canadian.

When I say I’m not Canadian I don’t just mean it in the sense that since moving to Canada I have not fully embraced my citizenship in a patriotic manner.  I mean it in the sense that I am not Canadian, in any way shape or form.  I am an American studying as an international student at The University of Toronto.  I am here on a temporary student visa and hold no rights as a Canadian citizen whatsoever.  I’m not allowed to work off campus, I pay international fees, and I most certainly am not allowed to vote in federal elections.  I do however have two forms of identification, and proof that I live within the Trinity-Spadina riding, and so I had absolutely no trouble registering and voting in the 39^th General Election because that’s all you need to do so.

The effects of my particular vote are insignificant to say the least.  Contrary to what many commercials tell us around election time, rarely do elections come down to a few votes.  What is very significant however is the ease at which a non-citizen could waltz into a polling station and participate in a federal election and cannot be ignored by Elections Canada or parliament.  I walked into the poling station presented my U of T Student card and latest hydro bill; the next thing you know I was making my voice heard.  The only bit of deception on my part was that, when asked my postal code, I said “Zed” instead of the “Zee” which I am accustomed to.  Smoke and mirrors galore!

Simply put, the rules for registration are too lax.  In an effort to increase voter participation, Elections Canada has made it easier than ever to register and in the process neglected their responsibility as a government institution to ensure a fair election.  Non-registered voters need not provide proof of their citizenship while those who are already registered can cast their vote without even providing election officials with ID.  They simply need to point to their name on a list and provide a signature.  The potential for fraud is so immense that ignoring it would suggest nothing short of incompetence on the part of election officials.  

While volunteering at a local political campaign it was brought to my attention by the campaign manager that there is no required proof of citizenship because, “We assume that everyone who comes out to vote is a citizen.”  Is that a fair assumption to make?  In the Toronto Centre riding, in which this particular campaign was based, over 7% of the population are not Canadian citizens.  You would think that in a riding where in 1987 the margin of victory was a mere 60 votes there would be a little more concern about ineligible voters, yet when I raised the issue with the campaign manager he laughingly commented that he thought, “It’s not  that big of a deal.”  More than 50,000 voters’ having an MP who potentially was unfairly elected just wasn’t that big of a concern to the gentleman.

At the University of Toronto there are 6,120 international students from 147 different countries around the world.  To suggest that 6,120 potential votes are not that big of a deal is ludicrous and irresponsible.  Every single one of those students, who are not citizens, have student cards and Canadian mailing addresses, and that is all they’d need to cast their vote.  Tell Tony Ianno that a couple of thousand potential voters in the Trinity-Spadina riding aren’t that big of a deal.  He lost to NDP candidate Olivia Chow by a mere 1,973 votes.

Ineligible voters voting is that big of a deal.  Potentially bringing to power people who are not representative of the voters’ wishes is that big of a deal.  There are very few countries which enjoy the same level of multiculturalism that Canada does and with this title accompanies the responsibility of preserving the democratic processes which makes it such an attractive destination for the citizens of the world.  The voter registration process as it stands is a joke and can easily be rectified by simply making proof of citizenship a requirement for registration.  Neglecting to do so any longer undermines the very democratic principles which these elections are supposed to represent.  But hey, maybe it’s not that big of a deal.  

Post Script: This lead to me being sued by the Canadian government for election fraud and them actually pursuing a conviction and jail time. I found it quite ridiculous, but did community service nonetheless so as to appease them. It didn’t work.

 The lawyer for Elections Canada was as my lawyer so aptly put it, “A real ball busting b**** with no common sense or decency.” She didn’t accept the community service she had previously recommended (that’s not a typo) and pursued a conviction complete with jail time.

As you might imagine, this made me quite nervous. My nervousness was exacerbated by the fact the ball buster was going against my lawyer who was always 15 minutes late to court, asked me “And you are…?” at three separate appointments, always farted in my presence, and with whom  I actually had the following conversation:

Me: I did some research on my own on previous cases and this is what I found.

Lawyer: Really? How’d you do that?

Me: It’s on the Elections Canada website.

Lawyer: Wow, I never would have even thought to look there.

Me: Really… Never?

Luckily I got off unscathed and took solace in the fact that Elections Canada had to spend a bunch of money on Ms. Ballbreaker for nothing. Of course it might be equally satisfying to them to know that I spent 100 percent of my net worth at the time (about $800) on my lawyer. To each his own.