Shahroze Rauf | News Editor
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1. What elections?
We are currently in the middle of the 2019 Canadian federal election. At the end of this election, Canada will welcome its new members to the House of Commons to form the 43rd Canadian Parliament. It is up to you as a voter to decide who will go to the House of Commons! When you vote, you are voting for a Member of Parliament (MP) to be elected from your riding.
Canada is divided into 338 ridings in total. In most ridings there are five candidates to be elected from five of six parties, unless you’re in Quebec, or your riding has an independent candidate not associated with any political party, or smaller party candidates.
After the votes are counted and seats in the House of Commons are elected, the political party with the most seats forms a majority government (180 seats or more) or a minority government (180 seats or less).
2. You can vote!
If you are a Canadian citizen, at least 18 years old on election day, and can provide proof of your identity and address, you are eligible to vote for your riding!
Make sure you’re registered to vote. This can be done online at www.elections.ca. You may have to register if you recently gained citizenship, moved, are voting for the first time, or are a student not living at home. You should receive a voter card with your name and address on the card. If the name or address is not correct or you don’t receive your card, contact Elections Canada through their online registration service or at 1-800-463-6868.
All eligible voters should have received their voter cards by October 4.
3. How can you vote?
The basic way to vote is on election day, which is October 21, at your assigned polling station in your riding. Your polling station will be indicated on your voter card. All you need with you is your voter card and government ID with your address on it. If you don’t have either, two pieces of ID, with at least one with your address, should suffice.
If you’re not available for some reason on voting day, you can vote on the advance voting days. These days and locations are available for voters on the voter card, or on the official Elections Canada website. This year the advance polls will be on October 11, 12, 13, and 14.
If you’re not currently in your riding during voting day, you can vote by mail. To do this, you need to apply for a voting kit on the Elections Canada website, or at an Elections Canada office, embassy, high commission, or consulate. You must complete and hand in your application the Tuesday before election day (October 15) by 6:00 p.m.
4. Polling station rules!
a. Your ballot is considered a secret, so nobody should be looking at it except for you.
b. No photography of any kind is allowed when you enter the polling station.
c. To help you vote, there will be personnel present during the hours the polling station is open; make sure you follow their instructions.
5. Other information to know.
By law, you are entitled to three consecutive hours while polls are open to vote. Your employer is required to give you time off to vote. The employer will decide when those three hours will be and the employer cannot cut your pay–doing so can result in charges in the forms of fines or even jail time.
You are allowed to go into a polling station and hand in a blank or rejected ballot. This means that you have decided to vote for no one. Some provinces in Canada count how many rejected ballots they have received. For example, in the 2015 federal elections, Elections Canada counted a total of 120,515 rejected ballots.
Canadian citizens living outside of Canada will be allowed to vote for the 2019 federal elections. Before legislation changed after a vote by the Supreme Court, Canadians living outside of the country for more than five years were not allowed to vote. Now, international voters can register to vote in the riding that they used to live in the last time they were staying in Canada.
