What constitutes residency?

Dear Editor:

I read with interest your editorial in the September 18 Spectator concerning voting in the upcoming municipal election. Although your column concerned Bridgetown in particular, your last sentence read, “Elsewhere, residents have the opportunity to cast their votes and make those changes they see necessary.”

Well, that would only be full-time residents. If you are a part-time resident, like me, you do not have the right to vote under the current system. Doesn’t matter that I am Nova Scotian and pay taxes on three properties in Annapolis Royal, including my husband’s family home. Doesn’t matter that I am a Nova Scotia business owner, belong to the Annapolis Digby Board of Trade and pay commercial taxes on two of those three properties. Doesn’t matter that my commercial properties -- the Annapolis Royal Train Station and the Ruggles Munro House -- were either abandoned or cited as derelict before I restored them and won two heritage awards from the town for my work. Doesn’t matter that 99 per cent of that work was done by craftsman in and around Annapolis Royal. Doesn’t matter that I am the vice-president of the Annapolis Heritage Society and spend about four months of the year in Annapolis Royal.

Nope – none of it matters. I am not a “resident” as defined by the Nova Scotia Municipal Elections Act because I have not spent the three months immediately preceding October 18 living in town. The Act works on the one-person, one-vote system, which apparently means that if you are lucky enough to have kept your family home in Annapolis Royal but have had to make your career in Ontario, you have no right to be involved in the future of your Nova Scotia hometown.

I know I am never going to be able to change this law, but I just don’t think it’s fair. I pay taxes but have no say in electing the people who are going to spend the money. So to all you “residents” out there who are thinking that maybe it’s not worth going out to vote, I say, take advantage of it. At least you’re “allowed.”

Jane Nicholson

Mrs. Nicholson Inc.

Ottawa/Annapolis Royal