Edmonton expatriate can’t vote but can run for Parliament

It seems so twisted it has to be true: Chris Jones cannot vote in this federal election, but he can run for Parliament. Silly, you say? Silly it is.

Born and raised in Edmonton, Mr. Jones now resides in California, where he has worked as a computer engineer since 2007. He makes regular trips back because he has family and friends in Edmonton. Elections Canada informed Mr. Jones he is an expatriate and would not be allowed to put an x on a ballot.

That position was upheld last summer by the Ontario Court of Appeal. Not so fast, said Mr. Jones, who invokes the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which says Canadians are allowed to vote even if they live outside the country.

To show the oddity of his plight, the vote-less Mr. Jones announced his candidacy in an attempt to change the Elections Act and give Canadians the right to vote no matter how long they have lived outside the country. He is running as an independent in the Edmonton-Strathcona riding, where he is up against a 69-year-old Marxist Leninist, a Libertarian, a lawyer, a 19-year-old chemistry student, a Rhinoceros Party candidate with a waxed mustache and the usual NDP, Conservative and Liberal representatives.

If the Tories said of Justin Trudeau "he's just not ready," what in blue blazes would they make of Mr. Jones?

"I'm a single-issue candidate and I've been getting lots of support," Mr. Jones said. "When I dropped off my campaign form, they checked out the signatures on it [from his backers] and that was it. I was officially a candidate. … I was always raised to do the right thing. This is something I believe is wrong – it should be citizenship over residency."

As you may have guessed, Mr. Jones has run a spare campaign. He has not gone out to shake hands and kiss babies. Stolen lawn signs have not been a problem (because he does not have any). He has not been attacking his rivals in TV ads and, when it comes to a campaign bus with his face painted on the side of it, he does not have one.

As for where he will be on the evening of Oct. 19 when the votes start trickling in, the dogged Mr. Jones will be in Edmonton, "glued to the TV, watching it."

Speaking of TV, you may have noticed that not one of the major parties asked him to participate in the televised debates. Maybe no one had his phone number.

Politics is a funny game

Just when you think you have seen and heard it all, someone like Tyler Lemco shows you there are still different ways to run an election. And in Mr. Lemco's case, it is about not running for anything. Not for city council; not for the provincial legislature. Not even for a seat in the House of Commons.

What Mr. Lemco stands for is … nothing. No promises, no deal making. He has made that perfectly clear with his campaign signs that are not campaign signs. They show his face and a catchy phrase, "I'm not running for anything. I just wanted a sign."

The Montreal rapper/writer was spurred to action after seeing some Liberal signs that he felt were "ominous and creepy." So he chose to make his own signs, and they are so about nothing it would make comedian Jerry Seinfeld proud. They're also being taken down by sign thieves, which boggles the mind; Mr. Lemco's most of all.

The vote is in

It may have seemed a foregone conclusion, but Alberta Premier Rachel Notley officially announced on Friday that she will vote for the federal NDP.

That was not so obvious early in this campaign, when Ms. Notley said her government has its own policies and ideas no matter what was happening at the federal level. That was portrayed as a rift. To close that gap, Ms. Notley told a Calgary Chamber of Commerce lunch crowd of 1,600 people about NDP Leader Tom Mulcair's "determination, and intellect." And then she added, "Whoever wins the election, as Premier of Alberta, I intend to pick up our conversation with either prime minister Mulcair, prime minister Harper or prime minister Trudeau in pursuit of Alberta's interests."

She closed by thanking "all 1,600 of my new best friends." The crowd missed the joke.