Ward warrior's not a citizen

Fri, January 13, 2006

Sam Trosow, an American teaching in London, has no place altering electoral map, politicians say.

By JONATHAN SHER, FREE PRESS CITY HALL REPORTER



A Londoner who pushed changes to the city's electoral map had no place doing so because he's not a Canadian citizen, Deputy Mayor Tom Gosnell and Coun. Bernie MacDonald say.

"He's not a Canadian and he's trying to run the city of London," MacDonald said.

An American who came to London in 2001 to teach, Sam Trosow should become a citizen before changing something as fundamental as the way councillors are elected, Gosnell said.

"You have to show commitment to this country before you start changing it," he said.

Their comments stunned Trosow, who helped form a citizens group called Imagine London that led the drive for a new ward map.

"It's appalling they'd say something like that. It's shocking," Trosow said.

Such a prohibition on political participation would exclude countless immigrants in London and across Canada, he said.

"(What they're saying applies) to tens of thousands of other people in the city -- that's why it's so serious," Trosow said. "They're trying to create an image they can demonize. Yeah, I'm American."

Acting on an appeal filed by Imagine London, the Ontario Municipal Board late last year ordered the city to scrap its seven, two-councillor wards and replace them with 14 single-council wards.

The new map will remain unless a city appeal succeeds. The appeal is to be heard Feb. 13.

Canadian law permits citizens to vote and hold office.

Such rights are much like reshaping electoral boundaries, Gosnell said, and should be off-limits to non-citizens.

It's one thing for Trosow to engage the city about a proposed pesticide bylaw, as he has, but quite another to reshape elections, he said.

"When (Trosow) takes the position he's representing the best interests of citizens -- it's absurd," Gosnell said.

If a Canadian citizen were to try the same approach in an American city he'd be run out, MacDonald said.

"How big would that go over there?" he said.

But one council opponent of Imagine London sees it differently.

Coun. Roger Caranci says citizenship shouldn't be a barrier.

"I've heard it come up. I've heard it come up many times. But I came from an immigrant background," Caranci said.

Caranci's father was an immigrant who became politically active.

"I'm not one to advocate you have to be a Canadian to have something to say," Caranci said.

Trosow became a permanent resident in 2004 and says he'll file to become a citizen as soon as he's permitted, either later this year or next.

He has applied for tenure at the University of Western Ontario and expects a decision this month.

"I plan on remaining here," he said.

As a Londoner who pays property and income taxes and uses government services, Trosow believes that entitles him to the same rights of free speech as Canadian citizens.

The attacks on his citizenship seem to suggest he was acting alone to change the city's wards, but that's far from the truth, said Trosow.

"A lot of people were involved," he said.

But those people, Gosnell said, were a narrow group with shared interests, including many failed candidates.

"They're not accountable to anybody. They're not answerable to anybody," Gosnell said.