Fragmenting the Nation State one election at a time

Think about this.

The votes of 40,000 Canadian citizens who qualify as "Italians abroad," some of whom have never set foot in Italy and many of whom don't speak Italian, played a pivotal role in the defeat of billionaire Silvio Berlusconi in Italy's election yesterday, according to poll results released late last night.

In 2002 Italy approved of the Italians Abroad voting plan to allow non-resident "Italians" to vote in Italian elections. The result is that foreigners elected 12 seats in Italy's lower house and 6 seats in the senate. The North and Central American voters will be represented by a "leftist" - Guerino [The Globe is wrong. His first name is Renato] Turano, head of a Chicago-based banking company. Also elected was a Canadian.