2 American expats in Sudbury reflect on voting in the U.S. election

American expat George Sidun Jr. usually holds an election party at his Sudbury home, but he says he'll probably hold off next week.

"I didn't have a party in the last election and Biden won by seven million," he said.

"So I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't have one just in case I jinx myself again."

Sidun is a former Republican and has lived in Sudbury for 30 years. But he says it was Donald Trump's term as president, from 2016 to 2020, that convinced him to get his Canadian citizenship.

"I was so confident that Hillary would have won that election. I don't want to be too confident, but I'm hoping that we have a win for democracy," he said.

As a dual-citizen, Sidun has already cast his vote in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

He says he is surprised that the race between Trump and Vice-President Kamala Harris continues to be so close in his home state.

For Sidun, the ongoing debate around abortion rights is an important election issue.

"We have no rights over telling women what to do with their bodies. End of story," he said.

A scientist's perspective

Stephen Sekula, a physicist and the research group manager at Sudbury's SNOLAB, says he's also already cast his vote in the American election.

Sekula was able to vote in Texas, which was the last state in which he lived.

"Science is a migrant profession," he said.

"So I started in Connecticut, where I grew up, went to Wisconsin for graduate school, went to Massachusetts, went to California and went to Texas."

Sekula says American elections have become increasingly stressful in his lifetime, but that has lessened somewhat as an expat.

Even though he now lives in Canada, he says he worries about the future of his country.

He says he sees parallels between political rhetoric in the U.S. and the rise of fascism in Germany in the 1930s.

"It is very difficult to avoid the parallels and the collapse of the reliability of information, the trust in experts and expertise," he said.

"These were the first things that led to the collapse of the German system into the Nazi Party in the 1930s. And it is just heartbreaking with history under your thumb to look at what's happening in the U.S."

Sekula did not share outright who he voted for, but said that inference could be made by his comments.

The 2024 U.S. elections are scheduled to be held on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. According to polls, it's a neck-and-neck race between Harris and Trump.

Sekula says he has a Taylor Swift playlist ready in case of a Harris win, and will queue up Pink Floyd's The Division Bell if Trump is the victor.