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July 27 - August 3,2003 |
Ital Voting Unrelated to Pensions
Vancouver and Montreal respond to ballots of first Italian elections open to immigrants
Originally Published: 2003-06-15
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The Italian Consulate in Toronto welcomes voters
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The 'turnout' for the referenda on article 18 of the Workers' Statute and on compulsory right-of-way for power lines has been remarkably good. But three days before the deadline for mailing in the ballots expired, several Italian-Canadians still harboured some nagging doubts.
"Several people, mostly seniors, are worried," says Agata Calisti Monti, of the INAS patronage in Hamilton and consular correspondent for the Steel City. "They've heard rumours that if they don't vote they'll lose their pension, but this is utter nonsense."
"We already repeated it over and over," explains consul Marco Giomini, "but urban legends are hard to kill: there is no link whatsoever between voting and pensions."
Pensions aside, the Italian community in Canada has displayed keen interest in voting. Only about 10 percent of the envelopes mailed out came back to the Consulate because of "addressee unknown", according to partial data from Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto.
"The turnout here," says Vincenzo Guardino, registrar at Vancouver's Consulate of Italy, "at present ranges around 19 percent: 2,000 ballots out of a total of 11,000 mailed out."
"In Montreal we are at 35 percent and counting," remarks Giovanni Rapaną proudly, president of the local Comites. "By Thursday we hope to reach 40 percent. That would be a qualified success. The consulate should close at 1p.m., but I'll ask consul Cornado to extend that till 4p.m., allowing even latecomers to cast their votes."
In Toronto, turnout Monday had hit 31.5 percent: "We've already received over 17,300 ballots, and more are expected," says consul Marco Giomini, who co-ordinates the special task force organized at Toronto's Consulate to cope with last-minute clarification requests.
"Over 400 people came to our offices because they hadn't received the envelope with the ballots and the electoral certificate," continues Giomini. "For many of them we were compelled to send faxes and e-mail messages to their last Italian municipality of residence to get confirmation of their inclusion in voter rolls. In most cases we received a definite answer, either positive or negative."
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