Northern couple spending thousands to vote
Last Updated: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 | 9:44 AM ET
CBC News
Fola and Titi Soboyejo passed their citizenship tests last summer after moving to Canada from Nigeria.
But because Yellowknife has such a small population, it only holds swearing-in ceremonies once a year, on July 1.
Soboyejo says he and his wife want to cast their ballots in the Jan. 23 election and have opted to complete the process quicker in Alberta.
"We were making moves to see if it could be held here other than the first of July, then we started to look for options," he said.
On Wednesday morning, Soboyejo and his family will spend $3,000 to fly from Yellowknife to Edmonton. He expects to attend a swearing-in ceremony and be a Canadian citizen by Thursday afternoon.
With a voter turnout of about 60 per cent in the 2004 election, Soboyejo says voting is an issue that deserves more attention.
"There should be a movement against voter apathy, you know, people just taking things for granted," he said. "I think that is where my interest really is, to say that I played my part."
