Voting Rights and Wrongs

In GCSE History, we learned about the Suffragettes. We heard how they took a militant approach to attain the vote, and listened mouths-agape when Miss McCabe told us how Emily Davison had thrown herself under King George V's horse at the 1913 Derby (the horse race, not the Tyne-Wear Classico). But these were the cool, crazy days of 1998: disenfranchisement couldn't have been further from the thoughts of a skinny white schoolboy in the 24-hour city of Wallsend.

I'm bloody furious now, though. Absolutely radged. I've moved to Toronto to live in a metropolitan paradise, to experience the rich tapestry of human existence, to immerse myself in cultures new and old (and get a job, like) - yet I find myself paying a shedload of taxes every fortnight to live under the tyrannous yolk of a hilariously inept mayor and there's nowt I can do about it because I'm not allowed to vote.

As long ago as 2006, 49.9 percent of Torontonians were immigrants and 15 percent were non-Canadian citizens. The latter figure equates to 400,000 people - a larger population than most of Canada's other provincial capitals. They pay their taxes to fund the city, from rubbish collection and street lighting to an ill-regarded public transit system, but have no say in how their money is spent. To use a phrase I didn't think I'd encounter again after revising my A-Level French Revolution notes, it's taxation without representation.

This could easily be a Toronto neighbourhood. Easily.

On a national level, I can sort of appreciate the situation: Canada is so large that it's an abstract notion to me, and it doesn't make a jot of difference to my everyday life whether a Liberal, a Conservative or a Quebecois PM sits in Ottawa. But the city is different, and its current incumbent is a walking disaster - demolishing bike lanes, failing to understand what "conflict of interest" means, framing any criticism of his actions in deeply unhelpful terms like "left-wing conspiracy". If I'm paying for City Hall's self-destruction, shouldn't I be able to register my distaste? It's not as if non-citizen voting is an outrageous concept, especially on a municipal level. As Scott Bernstein explains:

Non-citizen voting is not something unheard of.  About 40 countries around the world - including 17 countries in Europe - allow for some form of non-citizen voting.  In many cases, non-citizens only have to live in a place for a year to get the full franchise of voting.  What these experiences have shown is that non-citizen voting increases the participation and integration of immigrants into society.  Non-citizens who were allowed to vote progressed on the path to citizenship faster than in places without voting (that is very understandable if you imagine that the taste of participation in a democracy empowers people to imagine their participation on a broader level and encourages them to take the necessary steps).  It's a win-win to use a cliched expression.

So why am I only complaining now, more than a year after arriving in T.O.? I suppose it's because the place is starting to feel more like home (or a second home) and my arrangement doesn't feel so temporary anymore. Well... that and the fact that as a new homeowner I have to fork out thousands for the Ontario Land Transfer Tax and the Toronto Land Transfer Tax.

Unlike this hypocritical arse, I'm happy to pay tax.

So I'm a card-carrying member of the pissed-off permanent residents brigade; a half-million man march made up of poor sods like Ms Sambrano and Mr Acosta:

After an application process and day-long training session, they're practising their English in preparation for voting day, when they're volunteering at an east-end polling station in the ward next to theirs - giving directions and multilingual instructions to Torontonians coming in to vote. But they won't be among those casting a ballot. Ms. Sambrano and Mr. Acosta, who came to Canada from Bogota, Colombia in 2007, are among more than 300,000 Torontonians who have permanent resident status but aren't Canadian citizens. They pay property taxes and fees, and use public services; according to statistics published last week, they're disproportionately more likely to live in under-serviced pockets of the city that are becoming increasingly stratified. But they can't vote to elect the politicians whose decisions have the most direct impact on their lives.

Toronto is an incredible city that owes everything to its vibrant immigrant community - a community that makes up more than half of its residents - and it beggars belief that so many Torontonians are disenfranchised at the municipal level. I can't write to my councilor or MP because I don't have one, so it's time to daub a catchy slogan on a bedsheet and march on City Hall... once the weather improves.