Rome sacked by… North Americans?
From this weekend’s Globe and Mail:
Mr. Berlusconi’s anger and scrutiny is now focused tightly on these votes, especially in the riding that represents North and Central America, in which Canadian votes proved decisive.
In Canada, 15,425 Italian-Canadians, or 44 per cent of those who cast ballots, voted for Mr. Prodi’s coalition. In the United States, Mr. Berlusconi’s coalition attracted a slightly larger number — 15,148, or 34 per cent. But the Canadian votes for Mr. Prodi, along with a smaller number from Mexico, were enough to give him a victory here.
So the new Italian senate constituency of “North and Central America” will be represented by a leftist — specifically, by Guerino Turano, the head of a Chicago-based baking company. Among the dozen foreign deputies elected to Italy’s lower house was a Canadian, Gino Bucchino, a nutritionist and radio personality from Toronto.
Italians yesterday were just beginning to realize that their fate had been determined by people who have mostly entered their country only as tourists.
What a crazy idea! But how cool would it be to be a Canadian deputy in Rome? Hmmm… Can you imagine if Canada were to do this how many Vermonters would be helping to decide Canada’s political future? Now, Vermonters I’d trust. The folks from New Hampshire (New Hampshirites? New Hampshirians? New Hamsters?), on the other hand, now that’s another story.
(Just kidding, of course. Some of my best students are from New Hampshire….)