Americans in Montreal eager to engage in the U.S. election

The level of intensity of the 2024 U.S. election ramped up to 11 in recent weeks, and Americans living in Montreal are not immune to the effects.

"The next four months, if they're anything like the last 48 hours, are going to be nuts. It's going to be insanity," said Democrats Abroad Canada chair Erin Kotecki Vest. "Everyone is pumped. Everyone wants to do something."

Kotecki Vest has been in Montreal for five years after moving from California. She is among the Democrats amped at the nomination of Vice President Kamala Harris as the party's candidate for president after President Joe Biden decided not to run for another term.

"The vibe right now is like Christmas," Kotecki said with a laugh. "It is as though the Fourth of July, Christmas, and everything all rolled into one... The level has just shot up."

The excitement is similar on the other side of the spectrum with Republicans energized by former president Donald Trump's performance at the Republican National Convention.

"You can imagine what the roar was like when he [Trump] came in," said Republicans Overseas Canada chapter lead Georganne Burke. "It was like one of his rallies actually... It was an amazing thing to see. Even people who are not always high on him in the party, and there are those people there, Nikki Haley, there are people who probably are just not big supporters of Trump. Even those people could not ignore the emotion that people were feeling in that room."

Burke and Kotecki Vest will be working from now until November 5 to motivate the thousands of Americans living in Canada to register to vote.

More than half a million votes in the Great White North

In 2020, the American Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) reported more than 2.9 million Americans overseas who were eligible to vote. Canada has the largest population of eligible American voters with 516,309.

Statistics Canada's 2021 census reported 44,210 Americans aged 18 or over in Quebec, with 32,270 of those in the Greater Montreal Area.

Eight per cent of Americans in Canada voted in the past election.

Kotecki Vest hopes to push well past that number in November.

"Now with Vice President Harris on that case, that excitement has shot through the roof, and I think us topping that eight per cent is going to happen," she said.

Though he's lived in Montreal for the past 34 years, retired fire chief David Shelton has never failed to make calls, support candidates and vote in past elections.

"I'm always actively involved," said the Detroit, Michigan native. "I consider it my responsibility. We guide our governments, and even from here, it's doable, and it's so important so often. This time it's beyond that. It's absolutely crucial."

Shelton first got involved in politics in 1976 when he worked on Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale's successful election campaign. He admitted that participating from afar is challenging, but that it also has benefits.

"The distance -- it actually, in some ways, it allows me more mobility," said Shelton. "So I involve myself and my children where I feel we can make the most difference."

Red or blue in Montreal?

Burke votes in Florida and admits that Republican support in Canada, and specifically Montreal, has been far less than for the Democrats in the past.

"To be a Republican, living in Canada is not an easy thing," she said. "I can vouch for that."

A spark* advocacy poll recently found that just 24 per cent of Quebecers would vote for Trump.

However, Burke said more Americans in Canada are comfortable saying they're for Trump than they were in recent elections, and that some of those with her at the RNC convention were Trump supporting Republicans from Montreal.

She said trade, border issues and international conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza have lured some groups towards Trump.

"There's been a shift in the Jewish community that is American in Canada that's more toward Trump. There are other communities, however, that that is also true about," she said. "They just don't like what they're seeing. I think there is more support and it's more public than it used to be. People used to be afraid to say they were Trump supporters especially or Republicans even, but they're not so afraid anymore."

Tom Creary lives in Montreal and once voted Republican. He has worked on Canadian federal elections for Progressive Conservative and Conservative cabinet members and considers himself a conservative.

However, he does not support "MAGA Republicans", much like many of his friends.

"Most of my friends here in Montreal, the Americans and I know, they probably voted Republican one time, well to do families in generally speaking, but they don't anymore," he said.

He said the Republicans he knows in Montreal may consider themselves Republican, but that their politics have become far more moderate and they are looking for a middle-of-the-road candidate.

"They've come to, I think, respect the Canadian attitude towards politics, which is, is more oriented towards the public good, rather than that relative to protect the absolute protection of freedoms," he said. "I've noticed a great movement towards the middle for the people that I know in Montreal who grew up in the United States and working in States."

Any American eligible to vote can do so at the Federal Voting Assistance Program site.

Kotecki Vest said living abroad gives her a perspective on politics that she may not have if she were inundated with election action every day.

"It gives you a bit of eagerness to get involved but it also kind of reminds you of the rights that you have and the responsibilities you have and that you are American even though you're living in Canada," she said.

For Shelton, he may be crossing the border soon as the election gets closer.

"It's exciting. It's interesting but I want to go get closer to the action," he said.