Liberty and justice for all United States persons abroad

The Isaac Brock Society

Posted on by Posted in Issues regarding US persons abroad 162 Comments

If you are a Canadian citizen, you have the opportunity, and IMO the responsibility, to vote in the October 19 Canadian federal election. Certainly if you reside in Canada, and (with some restrictions I won’t go into here) even if you don’t.

This is Canadians’ opportunity to pass judgment on whether the government of Stephen Harper has stood up for Canada, for Canadian values, for Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and for Canadian citizens. And to decide whether maybe some other party should be given the chance to govern our country, for the better (we all hope).

My personal advice is to vote for anyone other than the Conservative in your riding, either the candidate most likely to defeat the Conservative candidate, or if you can’t figure out who that might be, perhaps the party leading in the national polls as of today (the Liberals) and hence with the most credible chance of getting more seats than the Conservatives and hence forming our next government. Or, if you have an incumbent MP who isn’t a Conservative and whom you respect and like, vote for that incumbent.

If you can’t bring yourself to vote for anyone other than a Conservative, but are appalled at Stephen Harper’s idea of governance of Canada, take former Progressive Conservative Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador Danny Williams’ advice, and just stay at home and don’t vote this time around. Ignore that absurd recommendation by the Globe and Mail, which said the Conservatives deserve another mandate but Harper doesn’t. In our parliamentary system you can’t make that distinction, it makes no sense. Harper is the Conservative leader, if the Conservatives really wanted to they could have deposed him but didn’t, and trying to say the Conservatives aren’t to blame for Harper’s style of governance is utterly ridiculous. They’re all joined at the hip.

But VOTE. If you’re eligible to vote in this election and don’t, IMO you’ve lost any right to complain about the outcome.

I was born and educated in the US. After completing my post-graduate education, I entered Canada on a temporary work permit, moving to Canada because of the Vietnam war. Shortly after unpacking, I applied for landed immigrant status. A few months later I received in the mail an induction notice from the US Army; I drew a peace symbol on it in felt marker pen and mailed it back. As a result, I was indicted and a warrant was issued for my arrest (both were quashed in 1977 by the Carter amnesty). I became a Canadian citizen in 1975. In 1976, for the US Bicentennial I wrote a political letter to Henry Kissinger, then Secretary of State. In it I mentioned that I had "renounced" (I didn't then know of "relinquish") my US citizenship on becoming a Canadian, explaining in several pages my reasons for leaving the US. I also mentioned the fact that on my mother's side I am a descendant of a soldier who fought in Washington's army during the US rebellion, but now I was declaring my personal independence from the US and rejoining the British Commonwealth. Within six months, I received by mail a CLN recognizing my having expatriated myself from the US in 1975. I filed away my CLN and forgot I had it, until I found it after searching for it upon learning of FATCA and OVDI in August 2011. Since then, I proudly keep a photocopy of it with my passport (which is Canadian; I have never had a US passport in my life, nor will I ever). As a Canadian who long since ceased being an American and who has a CLN, I am not directly affected by FATCA or other US taxation outrages. However, my wife and several of her friends are affected, until their relinquishment CLNs (dating from 30-40 years ago) are issued. Also I have several close friends who were born in Canada of US parents and are considered by the US to be US citizens, though they have never lived in the US, worked there, earned income there, held property there, held US passports, or in any other way excercised USC and are horrified they might be considered US. I am active on this website and in writing my elected Canadian politicians about these issues, on their behalf. I am a retired former employee of the Government of Canada who faithfully and proudly served his adopted and adoptive country for many years. Updated September 2, 2012: earlier this week, my wife finally received her relinquishment CLN, State Department formal recognition that (in their exact words on the CLN) she "ceased to be a US citizen on" the date she became a Canadian more than 35 years ago. Mission Accomplished, to borrow words from my least-favourite contemporary/contemptible American. I will continue to monitor this website from time to time to see if I contribute useful information or opinions, but my wife and I are determined to regain our lives after the past twelve months of angst. Best wishes to all of you on this website in your odyssey toward freedom from the US.

162 thoughts on “October 19 is Election Day in Canada”

  1. @TheMom

    Well then, we’re just going to have to make them listen – or we may as well just give up.

  2. @The Mom I fear you are correct. Trudeau has not taken any kind of strong stand against FATCA. My own Liberal candidate (now my Liberal MP) worked really hard to get a statement from him but could not get him to take any real strong stand.

    You can read his letter in response to the questions ADCS here:
    http://maplesandbox.ca/2015/response-from-liberals/

    As you can see, he thinks the Cons were “insufficient” and :inadequate” but did not say what the Libs would do. We need to get to work on the Liberal MPs to push them to push Trudeau to ensure our Charter rights are upheld. “A Canadian is s Canadian is a Canadian.”

    Both Con MPs in London were defeated by Liberals. The one NDP MP was reelected. Native Canadian will be furious that his riding elected a Con MP who was the Assistant of the previous Con MP.

  3. Another interesting angle is something like only 25 Liberal MPs out of 170 or so actually served in the last Parliament. An additional number such as Bob Casey most infamously have been MP’s in the past. B Casey of course was a Conservative MP who quit the party of Harper’s leadership. Also of note Kerry Lynne Findlay, Mike Allen, Peter Mackay, Joe Oliver, Jim Flaherty, John Weston and Gerard Keddy’s ridings were all lost by the Conservatives.

    *Still neck and neck out in Calgary

  5. The defeat of Joe Oliver and Kerry Lynne Finley is particularly sweet. Mike Allen did not run for reelection, but I tweeted him:

    Lynne Swanson ‏@LynneBlaze 19m19 minutes ago London, Ontario

    @mpmikea Canadians have spoken. No more “Congress has spoken” 4 Canada’s Parliament.

  6. Not being Canadian, all I can feel is Schadenfreude toward Harper and the Conservatives’ defeat. But on the (to me) far more important topic of FATCA and the IGAs, I feel no sense of euphoria, especially after reading this in the Reuters article about Trudeau’s projected victory:

    “Trudeau has said he will repair Canada’s cool relations with the Obama administration…”

    Again, being thousands of miles from Canada, and my last visit there in 1994 (!), my impression of Canadian politics, gleaned entirely from the IBS site, was that Harper had his tongue several inches up Obama’s sphincter. And that’s “cool relations?” What, Trudeau’s tongue is longer? If so, then he and his party can only make things worse regarding the issues we all care about here.

  7. Murray Rankin & Nathan Cullen – re elected
    Alexander, K-l findlay, Joe Oliver, John Weston – OUT
    TORONTO is completely RED!
    Good for you Lynne!
    Really Tempted to tweet a few to remind them what we promised!

  10. @Barbara, Trudeau is Obama Lite. If it weren’t for the fact that his father was a Canadian Prime Minister, he never would have been chosen to lead the Liberal party. Like Obama, he was elected for who he is, not what he’s accomplished.

    Canadian politics is cyclical, between the Conservatives and the Liberals. Ten years ago everyone ran the Liberals out on a rail, now it’s the Conservatives that are being run out. Next election, or two from now, it’ll bounce back to Conservatives when everyone hates the Liberals. Rinse, repeat.

  12. @Tricia Moon, the Conservative party released, before his speech, that he was resigning as leader. It was sent to media before his speech, and reported. He had a line in his speech that referred to the resignation, without stating he was resigning leadership.

  13. @Tricia: I tweeted Oliver, Finley, Harper and the two London Con MPs who were defeated too.

    Next step. Work on the new Lib MPs and returning Libs and NDP.

    I share The Mom’s fears that Trudeau has little interest in doing anything different about FATCA. I hope I’m wrong.

  14. Good results east and west of here. Most Calgarians / Albertans will continue to have Conservative representation. Calgary Confederation almost achieved change in this little corner of Calgary. It wasn’t for lack of hard work.

    We have to hold Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the statement that is becoming his trademark:

    *A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.*

  15. So, do any Canadians here want to offer a quickie projection, for the rest of us, of what impact the election results may have in the short to medium term on our issues of FATCA and IGAs? Any openly anti-FATCA MPs get elected?

    Somehow I find it hard to imagine Trudeau and the Liberals “repairing cool relations” with the USA by reneging on the IGA, flipping the bird to the US Treasury and saying, “Double dare ya to impose 30 percent sanctions on our banks!”

  16. Trudeau as pledged to dump the F-35 purchase which will piss off many but not all Americans(largely because some Americans are trying to get out of the F-35 especially the Navy which wants more old school CF-18s). One of Trudeau’s unexpected victories was by a very well known critic of the F-35 who was elected in interior BC(very unfriendly to both Trudeau Sr and Jr) I believe the riding in question is Kelowna. Further along these lines Trudeau will be under pressure to name MP from all areas of the country to cabinet posts. So at least one cabinet member from Vancouver Island, BC interior, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatchewan, the Northern Territories, Manitoba, Quebec City, and each Atlantic province. Again keeping in mind a lot of these areas the Liberal have not won in a long long time even under Chretien.

  17. Actually it looks like the Liberals might not win anything on Vancouver Island. Thus I could see Bubblebustin’s MP from Sunshine Coast as being the nominal Cabinet Minister for “Coastal” BC. Overall Coastal BC seems to be an NDP and Green firewall.

  18. Barbara, there will be no change due to the election. Also, this party has been far from power for 10 years. The newly elected Liberal MPs will be largely inexperienced. Not only are they not interested in this issue, there will be a steep learning curve on governing the country.

  19. *A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian.*

    But some are more traitorous tax evading American Canadian Canadian Candian scum than other Canadian Canadian Canadians.

    Besides which, Congress has spoken. Even if the NDP had won, Congress wants its remaining diaspora to renounce.

  20. Good morning canada

    Where there is change there is hope

    The time to lobby and educate is now

    Its also time to ask for playback for support

  21. The mom I have to disagree

    The govt is in the middle of litigation

    The liberals can decide to put up only a weak defense and blame Harper otherwise they hang themselves too

  22. Unfortunately, this reminds me very much of November 2008 when Obama was elected. Many of us had such high hopes after the George W. Bush disasters, but Obama turned out to be Bush III. Hopefully you Canadians will have better luck!

  23. Overall, not a bad night! Trudeau’s Liberals will probably be horrible for the economy, but I’ll always be grateful that he got rid of Harper.
    With the biggest vote since the 90’s, the country proclaimed loudly: WE WANT CHANGE! HEAVE STEVE!
    It’s official: Harper is resigning from leading the Conservatives, although, unfortunately, they won the Official Opposition.
    Mulcair held on to his seat and Duceppe didn’t, nor did the Bloc get enough for Official Party Status.
    Fierce FATCA opponents Rankin and Cullen held on to their seats. So did Elizabeth May.
    So-o-o I’m hoping that with their help and with the support of a lot of new Liberal MPs set out to undo Harper’s assault on certain Canadians, the new government will ensure that “A Canadian is a Canadian is a Canadian” and that there are no longer any second-class Canadian citizens.
    And to cap off the night, the Blue Jays won!

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