I recently received a Facebook invitation to a group called Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament and found myself torn about what to do about it. I am Canadian, having been born there and having lived there for 32 years. But last December, I traveled here to Virginia and in January, I married my wife. A week ago today, I received my "green card" and am now a "conditional permanent resident" of the United States. And I feel funny about accepting that invitation.
I am a Canadian and I am against Prime Minister Harper proroguing Parliament with more passion than usually breaks through my growing cynicism around politics. I think it is further evidence of the Conservatives' and Harper's contempt for Parliament and the majority of Canadians who rejected their party in the last election. I think it exposes them as hypocrites, for all their talk of bringing change after the "Liberal sponsorship scandal."
But I feel weird about taking part. This morning, to make sure my memories were accurate, I checked on whether I would be allowed to vote in Canadian elections. I would not. Canadians residing outside the country can vote, but only if they are temporarily residing outside Canada. While there is a limit of five years after leaving Canada (that I would fit in for the next election), I couldn't say that I'm here temporarily. I have permanent residence here. I've already looked into what it would take to become a citizen of the United States and am 95% sure that I will apply for naturalization as a citizen when I become eligible for that.
But following Canadian politics is now seeming to me a lot like following U.S. politics was when I lived in Canada: something interesting that, as a governance geek, I can't turn away from, but which has very little to do with my life. And just as I still felt weird about political involvement when I was here in the U.S. with a simple passport stamp, like it would be "meddling" in a "foreign" country's affairs, I feel weird now about acting in Canadian political matters. Why should anybody care about my letters, when I won't be able to vote them out? And when I won't feel much effect from the result of the next election?
And while I still feel a little uncomfortable about involving myself in American politics (especially as it will be years before I could possibly vote here), given that the decisions made in Washington now affect me more than those made in Ottawa, I think I'd be more likely to want to write letters to Washington or Richmond or City Hall here than I would to write letters to Ottawa or Toronto.
The next few years will be hard for my political side: I very much think of voting as a civic duty. It was one I was anxious to be old enough to exercise. And now, for a time, I can't vote. Not in my old home; not in my new home. It may end up as a deciding factor in my decision to become a citizen: because I believe strongly that it's important to exercise that right to elect representatives, and because I think it is hard to have a legitimate voice in decisions that would affect me without the right to vote where I live and where I expect to continue to live.
I don't know that I've worked out for myself what it means to be a Canadian citizen but not a Canadian resident. But my sense at this moment is that it's time to disconnect from Canadian politics. I don't quite know what that means, though. I'm certainly not turning my back on Canadian news sources...but maybe it's time to drop the few Canadian political blogs I follow. And maybe I should make that effort to start moving beyond the nightly news soundbites and figure out how to get the information I feel I'll need when I become a voter here.
Or maybe I should stop getting so deep at 2:30am after only a few hours' sleep.
