Don J. DeVoretz

Canadians Abroad: Second-Class Citizens?

Author(s): Don J. DeVoretz

Published: October 13, 2011  

Op-Ed

Canada has a large—three million—and growing population of citizens living abroad on a permanent basis. Many of these long-term Canadian citizens living abroad are unable to get ballots or are receiving notices from Elections Canada that they are no longer eligible to vote in federal elections since they have lived outside of Canada for five or more years.

The impact of this disenfranchisement is substantial to both Canadians living abroad and at home. Elections Canada and the current Canadian government must reconsider this arbitrary cut-off date that extinguishes a fundamental right and responsibility of citizenship.

My research on the Canadians Abroad project with the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada indicated that increasingly Canadians living abroad had become more aware, and some very concerned, about losing their voting rights.

Those concerned citizens, when interviewed, say they are motivated by actual events and anticipated policy changes.

First, the current Canadian government in 2009 extinguished the ability of naturalized Canadian citizens to pass on Canadian citizenship to their children born abroad under Bill C-37. Canadian citizens abroad quickly pointed out that this discriminatory policy, which could leave their children stateless, arose since they had lost their right to vote and thus had no MP to represent their views.

Secondly, many prescient Canadian citizens abroad noted that in the future without voting rights a host of fundamental policies, including on taxation and access to health benefits, could also be modified without their input.

These reactions from Canadian citizens abroad are to be expected. But Canadians resident in Canada when surveyed in 2010 also indicated that many, indeed the majority (51 per cent), wanted a restoration of voting rights for Canadians abroad. Canadian residents when interviewed stated that their relatives who live abroad were being discriminated against and, more importantly, the loss of voting rights by Canadians abroad severed a vital attachment to Canada.

Given that both Canadians living in Canada and abroad would like to see voting rights of long-term Canadian residents abroad restored, what could be the rationale for Elections Canada’s ineligibility letters?

If the rationale at the now-dated debates in the House of Commons on this issue was that after five years abroad you lost your attachment to Canada, this five-year limitation can now be questioned. Leaving aside the traditional means of attachment via returning home, reading traditional print papers and engaging in face-to-face debates, new attachments ranging from the Internet, Skype and other social media abound and can keep an interested Canadian citizen politically informed and attached to Canada without having to return home. Canadian MP candidates who advertised in the United States in the last election to garner votes from eligible Canadian voters are testimony of this increased awareness of Canadian issues by Canadians abroad.

Examples abound on how other countries politically engage their diasporas. At one extreme, Italians living abroad elect 12 MPs and six senators. On the other hand, Italians abroad cannot vote in municipal and provincial elections. However, some Italian provinces will partially reimburse a voter’s return airfare if they returned on election day. In a less dramatic fashion, the United States simply provides its diaspora with write-in ballots not tied to time abroad.

Given a range of models to choose from, a uniquely Canadian policy could emerge from a thoughtful discussion of why a cut-off date exists at all. Perhaps it is time to initiate a debate in Parliament or in the Canadian court system as a Charter issue.

Don J. DeVoretz is the former Research Director of the Canadians Abroad Project and professor emeritus in the economics department at Simon Fraser University. He is also a research fellow with the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn, Germany.

This piece was first published in Embassy Magazine on October 13, 2011.

View 3: Twin Citizenship Principles at a Crossroad?

View 2: Is Canada’s current dual citizenship policy too generous?