Aussie election

Fifty-six months ago, I decided to voluntarily withdraw the voting rights that many people, over the ages, had fought to gain.
At the time, I thought it prudent. I was leaving for 18 months, or maybe more, and didn't need the hassle of international registration. Also, as a journalist who avidly believes in living in the community on which one is reporting, I didn't feel right casting a vote when I was not living in the nation at the time. I'm an astute follower of politics, but the real impact, the full understanding, cannot be fully gained from outside a nation.
Thus I willingly removed myself from the electoral role. I was fully cognisant of the battle women fought to gain the right to vote (Australia was one of the first nations to grant women that right), yet it felt only just and right.
Then, in 2007, Kevin Rudd ran for Prime Minister and I felt I was truly missing am moment of greatness in Australian history. Perhaps I was. Now, three years later, KRudd has been deposed and Julia Guillard is running for Labor. 
I'm not partisan, although I do harbour particular ideals that match more with the left of spectrum. That guarantees no-one my vote, though. I am hard-headed yet idealistic in my voting patterns.
And yet, I've not been able to cast a vote in five years, and will still be unable for many years to come, until I am a Canadian citizen, or Canada gives residents a right to vote, or I move back to Australia.


Either way, I am mourning my absence from the often mundane process of democracy. It is a beautiful thing.