Jose Canseco: Myer Siemiatycki

Toronto Dept: Though a fun diversion from Toronto s usual politics, Canseco conceded his bid for mayor can t happen because he isn t a Canadian citizen. This raises a legitimate question: why does a person need to be a citizen to either vote or run in municipal elections? In big Canadian cities, where multiculturalism is so much a part of why we love them, this requirement seems odd, according to The Star. These residents who haven t yet made it through the long process of becoming a citizen are left out of municipal civic life, even though it s the level of government that affects their lives the most on a daily basis. All residents, citizens or not, pay property taxes, renters included, as substantial taxes are built into rental fees and last Friday, Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale spotted a late night post from former Blue Jays player and manic tweeter Jose Canseco musing about running for mayor of Toronto . Dale s questions, and subsequent story , have led to a week of Canseco outlining what he d do for Toronto if he was mayor, including tearing down the Gardiner Expressway and replacing it with a waterfront Ballsino for both the Jays and gambling. Myer Siemiatycki, a Ryerson politics professor, has pointed out that based on the 2006 census, around 380,000 people in Toronto alone, or 15 per cent of the population, cannot vote. In neighbourhoods with large immigrant populations, this percentage is even higher. According to Siemiatycki, more than 40 other counties extend municipal voting rights to non-citizen immigrants. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.