• 8 Posts
  • 103 Comments
Joined 4 months ago
cake
Cake day: March 25th, 2026

help-circle
  • As you can perhaps tell, Canadians are rather sensitive about American politics and the American governance system right now. Something about Trump insisting we become the 51st State. There is absolutely no way in hell Canadians would agree to be governed under the American electoral system.

    Every Canadian citizen over 18 is allowed to vote, no voter registration necessary, no need to qualify or establish our right to vote. What is required (and even then there are alternative pathways to vote) is that we get on the voter’s list for a particular riding. This is to prevent multiple votes by an individual voting in multiple ridings. At the polling station, you are crossed off the list so you can only vote once. However, every attempt is made to ensure you are on a voters’ list. Previously, enumerators went door to door (EVERY door in the country) to list EVERY eligible voter in the household. If there was no answer, they returned to that door as often as necessary in order to get an answer. The enumerators were paid per voter they put on the list, so there was definitely an incentive to get every voter. Then, the list was scrutinized by every political party to ensure every eligible voter was on the list, and there were no ‘fake’ voters on it. It was displayed publicly (usually on a telephone pole) so everyone in the community could check it over. Yes, that was VERY expensive. but it ensured the voters list was as accurate as humanly possible. Now, the voter’s list is kept current through our Federal tax form. On that form, we can indicate that we want Revenue Canada to submit our updated information to Elections Canada (an neutral agency, totally independent of the government, that is charged with the responsibility to run our elections) in order to keep the voters list accurate. If someone does not file an Income Tax Form, there are alternative ways to get on the list. It is very unusual for someone who wants to vote to not get on the list. Under no circumstances would we ever give up this basic right to vote in order to comply with the American ‘restrict the vote fudge the system’ process.

    We like our system, we are quite proud of it, and very protective of preserving it. It is one of the few things that can actually get Canadians to respond very rudely if an outsider tries to tell us how we should run our elections.