MARK AN "X"

Ken and I voted in the Canadian general election today, which is to say that we mailed it in with plenty of time to reach Elections Canada by the May 2^nd voting day. We get to do this because we are still Canadian citizens and somehow Elections Canada still manages to find us in spite of our moves. They send us absentee mail-in ballots even though we have lived in the US since 1999. Apparently there are more than 1 million absentee Canadian voters all over the world. I’m impressed that EC keeps track of that many voters and their return ballots. Especially when you consider how often Canada has an election. I think we’ve voted in Canada four or five times since becoming US residents – certainly the 3 times in 7 years or whatever it is that Stephen Harper’s minority Conservatives have been brought down by no-confidence motions.

I’m really proud to send in my ballot. When we hear there will be an election – again – we check online to find out who’s running in our old riding (electoral district) of Delta – East Richmond, BC. We write in our choice for candidate and I assume that Elections Canada knows which riding we belong to because of the bar code on the envelope. If this all sounds foreign to our US friends, it’s no wonder. Elections are one of those things that distinguish Canadians from Americans. While the American system cranks up an election campaign the day after inauguration of the president-elect – or so it seems – the Canadian election period is only 6 weeks from start to finish. And, as Harper continues to prove, it can happen any old time anyone gets upset enough to topple government. Also we don’t actually vote for the Prime Minister – we vote for our Member of Parliament in our riding – unless we live in the same riding in which the party leader is running and this person’s party happens to get the majority of seats in Parliament. Ken and I have never lived in the same riding as a party leader, but we did live in Vancouver in the 80s when Kim Campbell, also from Vancouver, became Prime Minister (way before Hillary thought about becoming president!) But I think Canada’s first female PM was in power for only, what was it, a couple of months (?) before she experienced her own no-confidence motion.

Another distinction between US and Canadian elections is that when Canadians go to the polls, and as far as I know this is the same as when we left the country, we mark our choices with stubby golf pencils making X’s on tiny pieces of paper. Ken found this particularly amusing during that dust up over “chads” in Florida a few years ago. This voting process has an earthy, primitive charm that I think must be lost in those US voting machines with their slot machine arms, little privacy curtains and those “chads,” whatever they are.

Not that I’m trying to say that all things Canadian are better than all things American. I would be a very bad guest in this country if I didn’t love and admire many things. I love Canada and am proud to be Canadian, but I was a youth when Canada struggled to define its identity.  Those were the days when American TV was way better than Canadian TV (except for Hockey Night in Canada – the theme song for which, now lost in time, for decades provoked a reflex reaction to pour my Saturday night bath). As a kid this gave me the impression that “the States” was way more sophisticated than Canada. And as world powers go, that’s certainly still true.

When we moved to Buffalo, New York in 1999, though, I discovered gladly that I needn’t have grown up with that inferiority complex. All things seemed about equal.

Actually, I am frequently asked, as an ex-pat, if I can clarify the difference between us Canadians and Americans. I can’t. Except, we mark our ballots with a golf pencil and don’t regard the prime minister as the most powerful man in the world. Usually he’s just a guy hoping for a majority of seats in Parliament.