The joys of being a Canalien citizen! I moved to Canada from the land ‘down under’ with my family when I was 4. In all my years growing up in this country, I thought it was a neat thing and rite of my heritage keeping my Australian citizenship in tact. Maybe it was to compensate for not being able to hang on to the Aussie accent. To think of all the dates I must have lost out on during my teens!
But ‘cool’ things can have their downside. It is only recently that rules and regulations became more relaxed for Aussie Canucks like yours truly seeking dual citizenship. That is the rumour, anyway. If you ask me, the Citizenship & Immigration Canada website is still convoluted and burdened in fees that I wrongly assumed were a thing of the past.
Bottom line is, I can’t vote in the October 25th Municipal Election unless I stop being a Canalien. Growing up here, paying my taxes in Owen Sound for several years, and even promoting the area through a small business venture means nothing without the papers. The same applies to the many other emigrated business owners and contributors to our economy with permanent resident status. And from what I hear, this is the stance in most countries. What I find to be the most unfortunate thing about this scenario is the often disappointing low voter turn-out in election campaigns. Our leaders will go so far as to spend money advertising so that they can encourage the importance of voting. Yet at the same time, they are excluding longtime permanent residents. They should put up signs at the polls that read, “Canaliens Not Welcome”.
So here I am scrambling through paperwork that I should have filled out long ago in the hopes of winning the right to a local vote come E-Day. But on the flip side, at least I’ll get to be a dual citizen so that I can maintain my roots in both countries.
No comments:
Post a Comment