EDMONTON-

Stephen Winters says watching the U.S. election campaign from Canada as a dual citizen is like a parent watching their child play sports.

“When you’re on the sidelines, it makes you more nervous than when you’re on the sidelines,” Winters said in an interview from Calgary.

“My friends and family at home tell me, ‘Don’t worry too much,’ because they are there and they know everything is fine. When you’re out there, things can seem worse than they are .”

Winters, of Minnesota, teaches linguistics at the University of Calgary. He is one of approximately 600,000 eligible voters in Canada able to vote in Tuesday’s election.

Winters said he voted by mail but took a step back from reading political news because of his feeling of helplessness afterward.

“I voted for Kamala Harris and the Democratic representative in Congress,” he said.

“I don’t think she’s the best candidate, but she’s definitely the best option.”

He says he chose not to vote for former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump because of his foreign policy and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“My wife is Ukrainian, and Trump’s relationship with (Russian President) Putin, whatever it is, is really a problem.

“We have friends and family in Ukraine who are in danger because of this war and I don’t think Trump supports the Ukrainian cause.”

Georganne Burke, a dual citizen, said she also submitted her absentee ballot from Toronto.

A political consultant who moved to Canada from New York state in 1987, Burke says she voted for Trump because he would help the economy and she agrees with his foreign policy.

“I was a die-hard Democrat, I worked very hard for the Democratic Party when I lived in the United States. The party left me. I didn’t leave the party,” said Burke, who is also the head of the Canadian chapter of Republicans Overseas. .

She rejects opposition accusations that another Trump presidency would not respect the checks and balances of democracy.

“Donald Trump is not a threat to society. Donald Trump is not Hitler. He is not a dangerous man. He has the best interests of the United States at heart.”

Burke said it has been difficult to follow the U.S. election from Canada, mainly because she cannot help recruit voters for Trump’s campaign in the United States, as she has done in the past working as a consultant south of the border.

“It’s hard to watch it from here (for) someone like me who is a total political junkie. I would love to go out there and get my hands dirty and do stuff, but I can’t.”

The best she can do, she says, is to make sure her relatives and friends in America and Canada mark their ballots.

“We have to be sure that the United States has a healthy economy, that there is security there, because if things go wrong for them, it’s a hop, skip and a jump for us , both economically and physically,” she said.

Jacob Wesoky, executive vice president of Democrats Abroad and a 20-year-old American student at McGill University in Montreal, said every vote counts.

“Canadian voters could decide this election,” Wesoky said.

“I voted for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, then for the Democrats.

“Everyone here is extremely invested in this election. Everyone is watching it closely.

“A lot of people are very nervous.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published November 2, 2024.