[ccga3359]

stratos stratos:

Okay this is my take on all of this. You have a set of laws dealing with such a situation and guess what D. Sutherland you can't vote this time around because you've been out of the country for to long. 10 yrs I think is what the law says you can be gone and still vote. IF voting does mean that much to you, and I hope it does to everyone, move back and re-establish residency.

In Canada it is five years, for me leaving Britain it was 15 years. After living in the US for 40+ years, regardless of not taking US citizenship, you're pretty much American. He mad his choice many, many years ago. respect the laws or lose you clout to change them if it's that important. Lobby Ottawa (which would mean coming back to Canada for a spell...)

[CountLothian]

So you are less a patriot if you live outside Canada, even if the government makes you an order of Canada recipient.

You have no say about your country with the most viable tool to have your say.

So if your kids leave the nest , they no longer have a say with mom's and dad's family decisions .

In fact nothing family related either than in your home is acceptable.

[Brenda]

PublicAnimalNo9 PublicAnimalNo9:

Brenda Brenda:

Hi, I am Brenda, I am Dutch and live and pay taxes in Canada. I cannot vote in Canada.
I can vote in the Netherlands.

Read Khar's post. It explains quite clearly why Sutherland and other ex-pats can't vote.
For example, come time to vote, how do you differentiate between a genuine ex-pat and some worthless plastic Canadian without resorting to "racial profiling"?

Ex-pats work for a Canadian company and are sent out to work in another country.

If not, they are just like me, immigrants to another country who do not take on their new country's citizenship.

(Btw, Martin, i told you before, I lose my Dutch ig I take on Canadian, which I refuse. You can become dual, yet you refuse. What is the difference between you and me again? You live abroad as well, right? So really, keep your underhanded insults to yourself. Im rather fed up with them)

[Brenda]

Btw, I don't vote in The Netherlands. I wouldn't know who for, and I would not feel the brunt of my voting decision.

[ccga3359]

CountLothian CountLothian:

So you are less a patriot if you live outside Canada, even if the government makes you an order of Canada recipient.

You have no say about your country with the most viable tool to have your say.

So if your kids leave the nest , they no longer have a say with mom's and dad's family decisions .

In fact nothing family related either than in your home is acceptable.

Thankfully the government has not legislated when it comes to family rules inside a private dwelling.

I am a proud Briton but being out of country for 40 years what right would I have to vote in something that would affect the lives of my family still over there? I still follow British politics closely, there is a referendum coming up next year in regards to staying in or exiting the EU, a Brexit that I fully feel should happen. However what if the slim majority is leaning toward staying in only to lose to the expats (like my father) who left in the 70's because of Britain signing up to the EEC? Let suppose you were born in Ontario but you move to Quebec only occasionally staying at your Muskoka cottage for a couple weeks in the summer. Do you think you'd still have the right to vote in both the Quebec and Ontario provincial elections?

[martin14]

Brenda Brenda:

Ex-pats work for a Canadian company and are sent out to work in another country.

If not, they are just like me, immigrants to another country who do not take on their new country's citizenship.

(Btw, Martin, i told you before, I lose my Dutch ig I take on Canadian, which I refuse. You can become dual, yet you refuse. What is the difference between you and me again? You live abroad as well, right? So really, keep your underhanded insults to yourself. Im rather fed up with them)

Ex-pats often never give up being a resident of Canada.
It doesn't just depend on where you live or how long, there are other things to be considered as well.

I wasn't trying to insult you Brenda.
You aren't a citizen of Canada, you should not be able to vote. My opinion.
I also hold the opinion of being resident as well in order to vote, and I accept
that I don't fit the bill these days.

BTW, you will possibly lose the right to vote in the Netherlands as well soon
if they have similar rules.


In the recent Scotland referendum, they gave the right to vote to residents living in Scotland, including all EU and Commonwealth people, even not citizens of the UK, but refused to allow "Scots" who were living outside Scotland.
Go figure.

[ShepherdsDog]

It's nigh on impossible for a foreigner to get citizenship in Taiwan, even if a parent or spouse is Taiwanese. It's just been in the last few years that they started granting permanent residency. My wife and I were eligible but declined applying, as we had no intention os staying there. Nationality was determined almost solely by ethnicity...being born there didn't grant it either unless the parents were Taiwanese nationals or were ethnic Chinese.

[Brenda]

martin14 martin14:

Brenda Brenda:

Ex-pats work for a Canadian company and are sent out to work in another country.

If not, they are just like me, immigrants to another country who do not take on their new country's citizenship.

(Btw, Martin, i told you before, I lose my Dutch ig I take on Canadian, which I refuse. You can become dual, yet you refuse. What is the difference between you and me again? You live abroad as well, right? So really, keep your underhanded insults to yourself. Im rather fed up with them)

Ex-pats often never give up being a resident of Canada.
It doesn't just depend on where you live or how long, there are other things to be considered as well.

Yeah, that's true. They still pay their Canadian taxes, keep their SIN and all that.
In the Netherlands, they usually rent a house, not own, and the company rents it for them, whether they are in The Netherlands for work, or abroad.
So, imo, they should be able to vote.
Donald Sutherland, however, is just a US immigrant with Canadian property. NOT an ex-pat.
So he should not be allowed to vote in Canada. That he never took on US Citizenship is not really important (he might be able to become dual). Fact is, he hasn't lived or paid taxes in Canada for 40 years. Why should he be able to vote? Have someone who doesn't live here decide how WE have to live?

$1:

I wasn't trying to insult you Brenda.
You aren't a citizen of Canada, you should not be able to vote. My opinion.
I also hold the opinion of being resident as well in order to vote, and I accept
that I don't fit the bill these days.

I'm sorry. I guess I was reading too much between the lines.

I agree with you, I am not a citizen. The only thing different between me and a citizen is my right (or lack there of) to vote. If I wanted to vote, I should become a citizen and make it my right. So I don't really care, I mean, there are millions of citizens who have the right and don't use it.
It's just that it is not worth giving up my Dutchiness for

$1:

BTW, you will possibly lose the right to vote in the Netherlands as well soon
if they have similar rules.

Probably, I don't even know, and that is fine. That too was part of my choice. If I wanted to vote in The Netherlands, I should have stayed there. That's my opinion anyway...

$1:

In the recent Scotland referendum, they gave the right to vote to residents living in Scotland, including all EU and Commonwealth people, even not citizens of the UK, but refused to allow "Scots" who were living outside Scotland.
Go figure.

I don't think it is a bad rule, to have to actually LIVE in the country you want to vote in. Unless you are an ex-pat and come back. Or maybe only when you are back...

[martin14]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

It's nigh on impossible for a foreigner to get citizenship in Taiwan, even if a parent or spouse is Taiwanese. It's just been in the last few years that they started granting permanent residency. My wife and I were eligible but declined applying, as we had no intention os staying there. Nationality was determined almost solely by ethnicity...being born there didn't grant it either unless the parents were Taiwanese nationals or were ethnic Chinese.

It is only the US, Canada and a few other countries that use jus soli, citizenship by geography where you were born.

Most of the world still uses jus sang, citizenship according to who your parents are.

Brenda Brenda:

I'm sorry.

NP

[PublicAnimalNo9]

Brenda Brenda:

Btw, I don't vote in The Netherlands. I wouldn't know who for, and I would not feel the brunt of my voting decision.

Which is exactly why ex-pats who've been gone longer than 5 years shouldn't be permitted to vote.

[CountLothian]

PublicAnimalNo9 PublicAnimalNo9:

Brenda Brenda:

Btw, I don't vote in The Netherlands. I wouldn't know who for, and I would not feel the brunt of my voting decision.

Which is exactly why ex-pats who've been gone longer than 5 years shouldn't be permitted to vote.

I still don't understand why people think if you live outside of Canada you don't know whats going on, in your homeland.

Many a poster here seems to think this is an argument for this anti patriotic law.

Anti patriotism is a bi product of this law for it promotes forgetting about your interests in your country. Yeah a week argument but it brews underneath it all.


Our government thought along these lines in the last election and spent millions on ads against Ignatieff for him working outside of Canada.

I guess it's some sort of paradigm of the lost and comatose.

[PluggyRug]

CountLothian CountLothian:

I guess it's some sort of paradigm of the lost and comatose.

Speaking from experience?

[ccga3359]

CountLothian CountLothian:

I still don't understand why people think if you live outside of Canada you don't know whats going on, in your homeland.

Many a poster here seems to think this is an argument for this anti patriotic law.

Anti patriotism is a bi product of this law for it promotes forgetting about your interests in your country. Yeah a week argument but it brews underneath it all.


Our government thought along these lines in the last election and spent millions on ads against Ignatieff for him working outside of Canada.

I guess it's some sort of paradigm of the lost and comatose.

I'm expat British 40 years removed (almost as long as Donald Sutherland). Although I do follow British politics I can only do that from online (and obviously biased) newspapers (Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Telegraph and BBC). That being said, that would hardly make me confident enough to make an educated decision in elections simply because I don't live there amongst my fellow Britons. By law I cannot vote there because I have been away for over 15 years. I'm fine with that, I agree with that. I am not there to live with the consequences of my voting even if it's for, what I see, as the betterment of society.

I am a proud Briton and I assure you, you will not find a prouder Canadian than me. You seem to think one can love only one country at a time? Bollocks. put it this way. I have two kids, I love them both. I never stopped loving my first when my daughter popped onto the scene. Now that my son is of driving age that may change if the little bastard smacks up my truck...

[CountLothian]

ccga3359 ccga3359:

I'm expat British 40 years removed (almost as long as Donald Sutherland). Although I do follow British politics I can only do that from online (and obviously biased) newspapers (Daily Mail, Daily Express, Daily Telegraph and BBC). That being said, that would hardly make me confident enough to make an educated decision in elections simply because I don't live there amongst my fellow Britons.

Well if you feel that out of touch and have not a clue as to what is going on in your country how do come to think of yourself as a proud Briton. One would think that if you don't even have some semblance of what is going on in your homeland you just don't care.

Never in the history of humankind have we had more chances to stay in touch with what ever country we call ours in this Global Village.

$1:

By law I cannot vote there because I have been away for over 15 years. I'm fine with that, I agree with that. I am not there to live with the consequences of my voting even if it's for, what I see, as the betterment of society.

Once again I say my point is thus, I don't get why people are fine with the concept that if you don't live there in your country your ok with what happens in it. You feel not living there eradicates your input .

$1:

I am a proud Briton and I assure you, you will not find a prouder Canadian than me. You seem to think one can love only one country at a time? Bollocks.

Ok so now it's deciding what I think when I don't even come close to thinking that way. Where did I even allude to the fact one can only love one country at a time. this is the sort of thing that if it happens often enough people leave forums over.

I realize typing and insulting people online can be fun for some , but this is the bizarre .

$1:

put it this way. I have two kids, I love them both. I never stopped loving my first when my daughter popped onto the scene. Now that my son is of driving age that may change if the little bastard smacks up my truck...

hopefully the little bastard doesn't get hurt.

[Brenda]

CountLothian CountLothian:

PublicAnimalNo9 PublicAnimalNo9:

Brenda Brenda:

Btw, I don't vote in The Netherlands. I wouldn't know who for, and I would not feel the brunt of my voting decision.

Which is exactly why ex-pats who've been gone longer than 5 years shouldn't be permitted to vote.

I still don't understand why people think if you live outside of Canada you don't know whats going on, in your homeland.

Many a poster here seems to think this is an argument for this anti patriotic law.

Anti patriotism is a bi product of this law for it promotes forgetting about your interests in your country. Yeah a week argument but it brews underneath it all.


Our government thought along these lines in the last election and spent millions on ads against Ignatieff for him working outside of Canada.

I guess it's some sort of paradigm of the lost and comatose.

I kinda know what's going on in my home country, I read what's going on, but I can't feel what's going on. Kinda like not having a clue what living in Toronto is like, considering I live in the BC sticks and have only been to Toronto once and didn't get off the airport. How would it be good for me (or Torontonians) if I would vote in their city elections?

I love my little part of Canada, I love The Netherlands. I follow Dutch news and think "Thank God I am here".