Revenge of the comment section: Stay out of our elections, expats

This week, the federal governmenttabled a bill to make voting more accessible. The new legislation undoes many ofmeasures introduced under the Conservatives'Fair Elections Act, and also extends the right to vote toexpatswho have lived abroad for more than five years. This changehas commenters musing about electoral fraud, and why Canadians who don't live in the country should get to fill out a ballot.

Meddling in our lives

There are thousands of people who have a Canadian passport but do not live in Canada because they have dual citizenship. While they live under another country's laws, regulations and social infrastructure, why should they be allowed to vote in a Canadian election when it would changemy and my fellow citizens lives, but not theirs?

Would it be right if a dual-national French-passport-holder in New Zealand voted for far-right MarineLe Penin next year's French election? No!

-PaoloDiCanio

All for one and one for 50

Ludicrous. The Liberals want as high of a rate of voter fraud as the U.S. has. In the high-rise apartment I recently lived in, around election time, you could scoop up 50 voter-information cards from the recycling pile. Guess Justin Trudeauwants someone to vote 50 times against him!

-Rodney McKay

Out of touch, out of votes

I have dual British and Canadian nationality. But I don't vote in Britain on moral grounds, as I am no longer in touch at the everyday level with that country. The Britain I know is of a decade ago, not as it is now.

-Hugh Phillips

You call this fair?

A guy who has lived in Japan for a decade should get to vote for which MP will represent the citizens in the Saskatoon East Riding? Only the Liberals would think this is "fair."

- Eric Earls

Tick tock

I'm not interested in these election tidbits. Where is the electoral reform that Canadians were promised? Time is passing. I suspect that the Liberals may offer us platitudes, but when it comes to the most important issue replacing the country's first-past-the-post voting system they may very well renege.

- R.Gabrielle Berry

Make voting a legal obligation

If they want to amend the Elections Act, how about instituting mandatory voting? Why is it not every Canadian's duty to elect a leader and governing party? We are legally obligated to participate in a census, so why not voting? If people don't like the candidates nominated, there could be a "none of the above" option on the ballot, but they have to show up.

-David Newman

Enough with the dumb-speak

• Deciphering the Liberals' double-talk on infrastructure

I'm sick and tired of political dumb-speak, and the Liberals are probably the worst offenders. The Americans aren't buying it anymore and voted for a guy knowing that he was saying a lot of stuff thatwould be difficult to act upon,or was even contradictory. The point is, Donald Trump spoke some uncomfortable truths and he didn't back down. He not only stepped on land mines, he ate them for breakfast. So, could it happen here? You betcha.

- Frank Huber

Trump's trump card

Living in B.C. I am fed up with user fees and taxes on everything: GST, PST, bridge tolls, environmental tax, MSP tax, carbon tax, income tax, property tax, empty home tax, public service tax, administration tax. If we cannot afford bridges and roads from taxes already collected, then do not build these monuments to the politicians. Hate to say it butTrump's trump card has meaning here in Canada.

- Martin Oram

Reader comments have been edited for length and clarity.