I’m a Canadian living in the UK, and later this month Canada has a federal election. I am so glad that the voting process is so accessible for foreign nationals. I submitted my vote by mail yesterday, and am going to walk you through the process so you can learn how it works, or do it yourself!

1. Get Online

To get all the information you’ll need, as well as your mail-in ballot, you’ll need to head to the Elections page at travel.gc.ca. Here you can apply to vote by mail (which I did), or you can apply for the International Register of Electors. The former is for those who usually live in Canada but will be out of their riding on election day, particularly those travelling or studying abroad. If you are settled internationally as an expatriot who still have Canadian citizenship, that’s when you can register with the IRE.

2. Choose Your Method of Application

There are a few ways you can do this. You can visit a Canadian embassy, high commission, or consulate to get a special ballot voting kit. You can also call 1-800-463-6868, but I’ve struggled to reach 1-800 numbers from overseas, and there are no Canadian government buildings near me, so I chose everyone’s favourite option: registering online.

3. Apply to Vote

You will be redirected to this website. You have to provide the address you want your mail-in ballot delivered to, as well as either

• 1 form of government-issued ID [driver’s license] or [provincial or territorial ID card]
  or
• 2 pieces of ID [healthcard and phone bill] or [debit card and bank statement]
  or
• An affidavit signed before a person authorized to receive oaths in your province or territory of residence

You can mail in copies of these documents as well as an application form, or you can apply online by sending digital images of your proof of ID and address.

3. Fill Out Your Ballot

My voting kit took about 3 days to get here, which is pretty standard for letters between Canada and the UK. Once you receive your ballot, you can fill it in. To do so, you’ll need to know the riding of your home address and the candidates running in this electoral district. You can find that information here. Write your chosen candidate on the ballot, then follow the instructions with the three envelopes included in your voting kit. Basically the ballot goes in the small one, then the small one goes in the medium one, and so on. Sign and date the final envelope, and you’re ready to send it back to Canada.

4. Go to the Post Office

Because it is an international letter, you will need to go to a post office and get it weighed and acquire correct postage. It’s a pretty sturdy envelope, so mine came out to about 80p, or 1.35$ CAD per stamp. The pre-provided envelope has the address of Elections Canada in Ottawa, so all you need is that stamp, and your “return to sender” address. Once you’ve paid for postage, your ballot is ready to be submitted!

That’s it!

It’s so important to me that I can vote, and it feels vital to do so in the 2019 election in particular. I was always told as a kid that you don’t talk about who you are going to vote for. Maybe this applied more when there was not as much of a global crisis of abhorrent political leaders, but in the current political climate, people need to speak out about the good and the bad in politics. The Conservative party is bad for Canada.

It’s really important to me to keep Canadian politics reflective of Canadian values, particularly those of equality and respect. Conservative leader Andrew Scheer does not represent Canadian values, nor do his environmental policies reflect the pressing need for change in the face of crisis. As much as I urge you to vote for who you think best represents your needs, I also urge you to vote ABC in 2019 (Anything But Conservative)!