Originally Posted by
gglave
I think most Canadians living in Canada are fine with the fact that people who have been gone for 5+ years can no longer vote in elections. You aren't paying taxes. If you want to vote, move back to Canada.
You're right, I can't actually write a response to that without diving firmly into P/R. So here's the short version only.
1) I
did pay taxes because through some quirks of the student process I could still be classed as a resident.
2) I stopped paying after it was clear I would receive virtually no services regardless of if I paid taxes or not and regardless of prior residency status, I couldn't vote anyway after the 2006 re-interpretation of expat voting status.
3) 5 years is not an unreasonable amount of time to be out of the country. I spent 5 years on a postgrad, let alone getting experience.
4) Move to a system like Australia where you have to actively maintain your voting privileges and it will make sure the people who are engaged and interested keep voting, this seems like the reasonable solution in a global society. We're still citizens, we're still affected by Canadian laws,
many of us have no other citizenship. The "expats shouldn't be allowed to vote" argument rarely addresses the fact that a number of expats are far more informed about their own nation's political scene than people living in the country. So aside from arguments about taxation (vs taxation without representation) I question why any responsible government would want to exclude typically the most educated and mobile from participating in the political process.
4.1) If I can argue the Italian parliament does only one thing right it's to recognize its diaspora with representation. There's enough Canadians living in the US to probably get one or two MPs based on population alone.
As an expat solely-Canadian citizen, I have no right to vote in ANY elections.