U.K. extends right to vote in next election to expats in Canada
More than half a million Canadians have been given the vote, but they won't be casting those ballots on home soil.
The U.K. government is extending the franchise to include all of the 3.5 million British citizens living abroad in time for the country's upcoming general election later this year. Before this change, only those who had left the U.K. within the previous 15 years had the privilege.
An estimated 600,000 Canadians hold British citizenship, with a large majority having lived in this country for more than the past 15 years, which had previously ruled them ineligible to vote in the U.K.
They can register online at www.gov.uk/register-tovote using their passport and a U.K. National Insurance number, making them eligible to cast a ballot in the constituency where they lived before emigrating. This can be done through the mail or by allowing someone in that constituency to vote by proxy on their behalf.
Craig Westwood, director of communications at the U.K.'s Electoral Commission, applauded the change, saying it would immediately result in “eligible new voters in every corner of the world.”
For one group of British expats living in Canada, the ruling is being celebrated as a major step forward in their decades- long fight to end discrimination over U.K. old age security payments.
The Canadian Alliance of British Pensioners is urging all its members to register to vote so it can increase the pressure on British MPs to finally index link their pensions.
Retired Brits in the U. S. and most European countries see their U.K. pensions topped up every year. Yet in Canada, Australia and New Zealand — the three countries with the largest cohorts of U.K. citizens — those pension amounts are frozen at the initial first payment.
As the years pass, inflation takes a bigger toll on their pension. Sheila Telford, 77, is a director with the British pensioner organization and has spent years fighting to change such arbitrary discrimination. She hopes this franchise extension will allow those affected to increase pressure on U.K. MPs.
“It is desperately important those voters who have a British pension register. It is in their interest to vote for any party that will commit to unfreezing these pensions,” said Telford of Calgary.
“We urge people to get in touch with all their candidates beforehand and ask where they stand on this, so these politicians now know they have real constituents for which this is a big issue,” she added.
The Canadian government has also been stonewalled by Britain in its repeated efforts to have this frozen pension situation reversed. In contrast, expat Canadians living in the U.K. and receiving CPP payments do get annual increases to compensate for inflation.
As many seniors affected are forced to apply for Canada's Guaranteed Income Supplement due to their relatively low incomes, the situation is also a constant drain on the taxpayers of this country, advocates say.
“Because they don't have the income from the U.K. that they previously paid for,
WE INTEND TO PUSH, PUSH, PUSH FROM EVERY ANGLE TO HAVE THIS REVERSED.
it is costing Canadian taxpayers. Effectively, the Canadian government is subsiding the British government,” said Telford.
About 114,000 seniors are affected, many receiving pensions today worth less than half the true value of their initial payment.
Meanwhile, British expats in countries as widespread as Turkey, Mozambique and the Philippines — in addition to those in the U.S. and EU — get yearly increases, the latest an 8.5 per cent jump that went into effect April 1.
“It is completely random and totally unfair. We intend to push, push, push from every angle to have this reversed. Hopefully getting the vote will make the difference,” added Telford.