I’ve told this story to my friends in Vancouver and Toronto time and time again…until I stopped telling it last month because I no longer needed to. The year I turned 18 was the year Stephen Harper’s (Canada’s former prime minister) government barred Canadians that have been overseas for more than five years from voting in federal elections. Since I turned 18, I’ve voted exactly zero times.
Having been forced to miss out on the 2015 federal elections, I decided to write to Buckingham Palace to convey my grievances to this unconstitutional practice. A variation of the letter I wrote can be found here. The only major change is who it is addressed to and the inclusion of the following poem adapted from an original by a suffragette:
The Ex-patriate’s Cry
‘Whatever do the ex-patriates want?’ we hear the scornful
cry,
To you, O ‘Christian commonwealth!’ we ex-patriates reply.
We want a ‘Christian commonwealth’, where just and equal laws
Shall make needless a mission ours, who plead ex-patriate’s cause.
It is a wholesome lesson we were taught as pupils in school
That our vaunted Christian masters has a fundamental rule,
That whosoever hath no voice in voting or debate
Is free from obligation to contribute to the state.
When ex-patriates claim the franchise, the government has
one answering note,
‘By reason of your ex-patriation, we do refuse the vote.’
But then when the war office calls, ‘tis not enough to recite,
‘By reason of our ex-patriation we do refuse to fight.’
O wise and prudent rulers! We are ex-patriates it is true,
But we are fellow citizens and fellow subjects too.
We have hearts and minds and voices, have we no right to say,
By what laws we are governed – whose scepter we obey?
There are wrongs that must be righted – bitter woes that
seek redress.
We can hear our citizens calling in their distance and distress.
We need the power to lift them from their sad and unjust plight –
‘Tis for this we want the franchise – and we claim it as our right.
One of Her Majesty’s staff members did reply, stating that Her Majesty’s position as a constitutional monarch means that she wouldn’t intervene. It was suggested that I convey my views to the Governor General of Canada, Her Majesty’s representative. So I did just that.
When Rideau Hall got back to me later that year, I was informed that the Queen’s representative could not intervene in the matters of public officials. So I wrote to the highest elected public office in Canada – the Prime Minister.
In 2018, I finally got a response from the Prime Minister’s office notifying me that the letter will yet again be forwarded to another department. But that didn’t matter too much because within the next six months, the Supreme Court of Canada would rule in favour of ex-patriate voting rights in Frank v. Canada (Attorney General) – finally restoring the right to vote for all overseas Canadians in accordance with the constitution.
Just a few weeks prior to the ruling, Bill C-76 was also granted royal assent from Her Majesty after being passed in parliament to restore voting rights to all overseas Canadians. I can imagine that thousands must have written to their political representatives, as I did, to vent our grievances and explain why it was important to hold true to our values of equality for all.
