[hwacker]

Miller backs non-citizens

Oct. 23, 2006. 01:35 PM
JOHN SPEARS
CITY HALL BUREAU


Immigrants should have the right to vote in municipal elections even if they haven’t yet become citizens, Mayor David Miller says.
"It’s time to allow landed immigrants to vote in municipal elections," Miller told the Star’s editorial board in a question and answer session today.

"We allow people who don’t live in Toronto to vote, simply because they own property here," Miller said.

"It’s not like a national election; you’re not determining issues of what this country should do or shouldn’t do," he said. "You’re determining issues that directly affect people’s lives."

"And if we ask ourselves: How have we let neighbourhoods where there are often high proportions of landed immigrants deteriorate, one of the reasons is, they haven’t had a vote. They haven’t had a real say in the decisions that are affecting them.

"And if somebody who lives in Calgary, but owns a piece of property here has a right to vote in municipal elections, I think somebody who lives here, committed to the city, has a right to vote."

Allowing immigrants to vote would require a change in Ontario’s Municipal Elections Act.




OK this guy has to go.

[hwacker]

source

[ridenrain]

"As long as they vote for me..."
This is just an invitation for abuse.

[themasta]

That's retarded. Why not have citizens of Canada vote in American elections? Why not have Iraqis vote on who the mayor of Dubai should be? This is just...wow...dumb...

[hwacker]

He’s just setting up the Liberals_NDP for when they get caught it's not a surprise to the public that immigrants have been voting for them for years.

I’m betting that if “Real ID” was needed to vote the Liberals_NDP would never win another election.

[SJ-24]

Just another Brillant idea by another Brillant politician from Ontario.

[IcedCap]

what relevance does citizenship have to whether you should vote in municipal elections. As Miller said, why should non-residents be allowed to vote in our city while long-term residents aren't.

oh and btw I think Millers a spineless waste of time, before anyone accuses me of being biased

[Clogeroo]

Well British subjects used to be able to vote in our federal elections until 1970. In British Columbia, British subjects were also allowed to vote until 1985. So we have done it before by having "non-citizens" vote here. Id support people from countries with the same crown as ours to be able to vote. If they have the same head of state there is really no conflict or question of allegiance.

But foreign nationals shouldn’t have rights here. You only have to wait what 4 years to take a citizenship test. I think that is a reasonable time to wait and if they are too lazy to be bothered to do it why should we let them be able to decide who runs our municipality, province, or even country?

[jc12]

I think he's getting nervous, knowing that he may lose the candidancy. Does he think he is going to get the immigrant's votes even if they are allowed?

[Banff]

Really if you seperate what people say and what they think , it would look something like this : If your skin isn't white you have no business voting (citizen or not ) . am I wrong?

[Blue_Nose]

Yes, you're wrong.

[Banff]

Blue_Nose Blue_Nose:

Yes, you're wrong.

Yeah I thought I was wrong .

At least you were the only one not afraid to answer

[SJ-24]

By color....well, I'd go with wrong, but whether or not you are Muslim or Chirstian...Perhaps you're right!

I knew I could find a reason to seperate the Muslims from the rest of us in this post!