Now that you have the vote..

Vapaa Sana editorial on May 20, 2009

The European Parliament Elections this June (May here in Canada) will be the first opportunity for many Finnish Canadians to use their rights to vote as Finnish citizens.
The entry level for exercising that right may be somewhat demanding though. If the new citizen has no command of Finnish or Swedish, and background information about Finnish and European politics is limited decisions may be difficult to take.
The names of the lists do not divulge much of what kind of a grouping is behind the names, and what their policies would be in Finland and in Europe. And whether they have a practical chance of getting elected.
In this country there is now a cohort of new Finnish citizens - facing an election system and a political scene fairly alien to them.
The Finnish Ministries of Justice and Foreign Affairs do offer practical information even in English about the voting procedure. But the political background information remains a lot upon the personal interest of the new citizen. Some of the political parties approach the voters also in English. Their interest is based on reaching the immigrants in Finland, not that much the English speaking expatriate.
As noted in Vapaa Sana earlier, the Finnish political scene differs a lot from the scene in Canada, even though there are some similarities. What is fairly “leftist” here in Canada, may be part of the political consensus in Finland - particularly in the fields of social security, education and the employee’s rights. On the other hand many of the established goals of North American conservatism only find backing in small splinter groups in many European countries, including Finland.
For new citizens with more an emotional tie with Finland, the programmes of Finnish political parties and the political scene there may be a major surprise.
Of course, knowledge is no requirement for political participation. But to avoid being amused later with personal decisions taken in 2009, it may be worth taking some time to familiarize with what is being offered. And with Who is Who. There is still time.