Immigrants can't vote, premier says
Oct. 24, 2006. 12:30 PM
ROB FERGUSON
The Toronto Star
QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU
Premier Dalton McGuinty has poured cold water on Mayor David Miller's push to let Toronto's 200,000 landed immigrants vote in municipal elections.
Although the premier's own municipal affairs minister, John Gerretsen, has said he's willing to look pros and cons of the idea, McGuinty ruled it out today.
“I know very well new immigrants are eager to gain this right,” McGuinty said in French heading into the Liberals' weekly caucus meeting at Queen's Park.
“But it's a right that comes with citizenship.”
Miller's reasoning is that landed immigrants, though a vote, deserve input into decisions affecting their neighborhoods.
More than two dozen cities in Europe let immigrants vote, according to Prof. Myer Siemiatycki of Ryerson University.
