Genealogy Chat

I think Australia is like Canada


up to 1975 ................... ALL British citizens who had emigrated to Canada were eligible to vote in ALL elections (city, provincial and federal), as long as they had been in the country for at least 6 months

This was changed in 1975 to read that only a Canadian citizen can vote.

In 1977, there was a further change ............... The Canadian Citizenship Act was revised ...........................
-The phrase "A Canadian citizen is a British subject" is removed from passports.
-Canadian Citizenship becomes the only legal form of citizenship in Canada.



This was all leading up to the Independence of Canada from the UK




and is the same as happened in Australia, only I think they were a little later.




We were living in Australia in 1975/76, when there was a Federal Election.

A person came to the door to register us ............... and was most upset when we refused to let him take our names.

It was, and still is, a legal requirement that one HAS to vote, and we, as Canadian citizens, came under the category of "Commonwealth", which to him, meant that we had to register.

We, however, had a visa that was good only for 11 months, and didn't feel we had the right to vote.


He finally left, muttering "on your own heads be it" :-D



sylvia

Adeline thanks for that

Found online:


Australian citizens 18 years and over are not only eligible to vote, but legally required to do so. British subjects who were on the electoral roll before 26 January 1984 are also allowed to vote.

I have been looking at the AUS polls and found many of my living rellies born in England who emigrated 1940/1950's. 1980 seems to be the latest poll.

What is not clear is would they have had to change their nationality before being allowed to vote.
What happens if a British national married an Aus citizen

:-D :-D