by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com
October 15, 2004
Documentary film maker Michael Moore's love affair with Canada may find its roots in the younger sister of presidential hopeful John Kerry.
Until her U.S. `endangering australians' remarks last month, Diana Kerry barely registered on media radar, even though she'd been travelling the world trying to secure the votes of americans living abroad, as chief of americans Overseas for Kerry-Edwards.
In the americans living abroad constituency, Canada with its 400,000 to 600,000 potential votes, is second only to Mexico.
That may sound like a paltry number until you consider that the hundreds of thousands of americans living in Canada outnumber total voting populations in the states of North Dakota, Wyoming or Vermont.
"It was the overseas absentee ballot that put George Bush over the top (in 2000)," Ms. Kerry told CBC during a whistlestop in Calgary, alta. "This time we want to make sure that the majority goes to my brother."
While Ms. Kerry has been criss-crossing the globe stumping up votes for her brother, Moore has been obsessing about his love for Canada, insisting that his own country should be more like its northern neighbour.
any american, living anywhere in the world, has the right to exercise a vote in their last state of residence, according to U.S. election law.
With pockets of americans represented in most countries, South alberta has one of the largest concentrations of U.S. citizens living abroad.
In the Nov. 2 election campaign, six states along the Canadian border are being counted as swing votes. and in the anti-Bush Moore-Kerry world, anything could happen.
Ms, Kerry, a former teacher, and media-dubbed as "Sister Kerry", believes that support for the U.S. in Iraq by the John Howard government in australia makes aussies a bigger target for international terrorists.
The australian people, who obviously don't buy into the same notion, recently restored the Howard government to office.
There's been no word about what Moore or Kerry makes of that turn of events.
During the presidential campaign most of the media limelight has gone to Kerry's wife, Teresa. But put a brillo pad on Kerry and he's his sister Diana.
and Sister Kerry can match Michael Moore for drama.
While the Kerry campaign was battling the perception in Washington that Bush had already won the election last august, Ms. Kerry told the media: "I'm a drama teacher and I believe that you build to the closing of the play in the final act and that's what we're doing. You want to peak just at the right time, when people are ready to go and cast that important vote on Nov. 2."
Meanwhile, could it be that Michael Moore's love affair with Canada has much more to do with votes than policy?
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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