More details:

By “date of departure” they mean

“Indicate the date of your departure from Canada for the purpose of residing outside Canada. This date may not be the date of your last visit in Canada. By law, you must provide this date. It determines whether you are eligible to vote.”

This is all very perplexing. When would that date be? When I went to grad school? At the time I fully intended to return to Canada to get a job. Would it be the last time I entered the US prior to working at STATE UNIVERSITY? Because that would technically be only 3 years ago, hence making me eligible. Ha. I’m going to go with that.

In order to get an absentee ballot I have to agree to these conditions:

– I am a Canadian citizen and will be 18 years of age or older on polling day.
– I intend to return to Canada for the purpose of resuming residence. My probable date of return is:
– All of the statements made in this application are true and correct.
– I understand that the information on this form is protected under the Canada Elections Act and the Privacy Act, and is used for federal, provincial and territorial electoral purposes only. The information is retained in Personal Information Bank CEO PPU 005.

The second bullet is rather vague. Do I intend to return to Canada for the purpose of resuming residence? Maybe. It all depends. Does it matter if I put down that my probable date of return is, say, July 30, 2048? Would that disqualify me?

Elections Canada seems to want to fix people into some kind of predictable life pattern that just doesn’t seem to happen to actual people who leave their home country.