Section 3 of the
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982) states: This is subject to
Section 1, which states: In May 1993, the government of
Brian Mulroney amended the
Canada Elections Act so that Canadians living abroad could vote in federal elections under the condition that they were: Those who returned to visit Canada within the five-year limit had this time reset, so that those who frequently returned to visit Canada maintained the right to vote from abroad. After
Stephen Harper's government came to power in 2006, it began strictly enforcing the five-year limit, so that it never reset for those who visited Canada. The provisions in the act were challenged by Canadian citizens Gillian Frank and Jamie Duong. Both worked at universities in the United States, as they could not find suitable work in Canada. When they found they could not vote in the
2011 Canadian federal election, they pursued a case. The
Justin Trudeau government introduced the
Elections Modernization Act shortly before the Supreme Court's decision; the legislation restored expatriate voting rights, but left open whether future governments could take them away again. ==See also==