Dec. 2, 2005.
LAURIE MONSEBRAATEN
STAFF REPORTER

Sabah Hormiz has been a Canadian citizen for seven years. But he has never voted.And he says he doesn't plan to cast a ballot this time, either.

"When we came here we left too much behind," said the 36-year-old Assyrian Catholic who fled persecution in Iraq in 1994. "It's hard to figure out where you fit here. None of the (political) parties carry my dreams."

Hormiz lives in the ethnically diverse northwest Toronto riding of Etobicoke North, which had Ontario's second-lowest voter turnout in the 2004 federal election. Just 51 per cent of eligible voters in the riding cast a ballot. Only neighbouring York-West was lower. Nationally, almost 61 per cent of Canadians voted in June 2004.

The Star wants to find out why people don't vote and will focus on Etobicoke North during the eight-week campaign because it has a polling station where just 18.5 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot in 2004.

No other riding in Ontario with an unusually low turnout overall has a poll where so few people voted.

Hormiz is among those who didn't vote in Poll 37 - a pocket of three 40-year-old mid-rise apartment buildings filled with relatively new immigrants like himself - in the riding's Albion Rd. and Martin Grove Rd. area.

Assyrian Catholics from Iraq and East Indians form the largest ethnic groups in the buildings, said Ron Sicard, building superintendent for 1865 Martin Grove Rd. for the past decade. Most are still not citizens, he added. About 44 per cent of households in the area are families with children, according to Statistics Canada.

Although crime in the area is high - the churchyard where Amon Beckles was recently shot dead during a funeral is just across the street - the buildings themselves are relatively safe, Sicard said.

Political sociologists saylow-income groups tend to vote less than middle-income earners.

Professor Robert Andersen, a political sociologist at McMaster University who studies electoral behaviour, said people living in areas of high crime are also less likely to vote.

"When you have communities with high crime rates, people get disillusioned," he said. "Especially in Canada where there really isn't much difference between the two leading parties, people don't see how either party could make a difference in their lives."

People are also affected by what their neighbours are talking about. And if there are many non-citizens in the area who aren't paying attention to the election, it's unlikely those who are eligible to vote will become engaged, Andersen added.

Homa Amiri, 31, an Afghan refugee who became a citizen seven months ago, is keen to vote for the first time in her new country.

"We are living here and this is our chance to make a choice, to vote for peace," she said. "In my country there is so much war and trouble."

Although the mother of two, who works the evening shift in a local bakery, doesn't know much about the candidates or the issues, she said she will be searching the Internet to learn more.

Her uncle, Baz Abedi, 65, who immigrated in 2003 and is not yet a citizen, said he understands why some people don't vote.

"People have lost confidence. They don't want to give the vote to any of the parties. They are all the same. It's just promises, not truth they are telling us," he said.

Some are simply too busy to vote. A 30-year-old East Indian woman who has been a citizen for two years just shook her head when asked if she voted in 2004 and if she planned to vote this time.

"I have twin sons and a daughter," said the woman, who didn't want to give her name. "I don't have time."

Others just don't care.

"It makes no difference for us," said an Eastern European woman who has lived at 1875 Martin Grove Rd. for 20 years.

"I'm not interested. I've never been interested. I'm interested in the arts and other things," said the woman, who also didn't want to give her name. "Politics is a waste of time."

Such indifference outrages Chirag Barot, 18.

"I think some people are just lazy," said Barot, who attends Grade 12 at North Albion Collegiate Institute.

"Many people here are new immigrants and don't know much about this country," he said. "But when you are a citizen, you should be taking part in the election and you should be voting."

But it's not always easy for immigrants, especially those like Younan Younan, who was held prisoner in Iraq for nine years by Saddam Hussein.

Younan, who looks much older than his 48 years, has diabetes and other heath ailments. And although he insists he voted in 2004, he can't recall going to the local school to cast his ballot.

"The war ...," he said, his voice drifting off. "It has affected me in so many ways."

His roommate, also an Iraqi refugee and now a citizen, is sure he didn't vote. The 47-year-old security guard, who didn't want to give his name, said he's not smart enough to vote.

"It's too much for me. My brain. I just don't understand," he said, as he tinkered under the hood of his used car.

But it's not just immigrants who don't vote. Building superintendent Sicard, a native-born Canadian, said he didn't vote in 2004 and won't be voting for any level of government again anytime soon.

"I have absolutely no faith in government to get anything right," he said, citing the gun registry and its inability to stop gun crime in the area."And I don't believe anything any of them say."