Wayne Meaney urgently needed to find another Australian in the capital region before today.
He was hoping to vote via mail-in ballot in Australia’s referendum on whether to acknowledge Indigenous peoples in its constitution and establish a representative advisory body for the country’s parliament.
But he needed a fellow citizen as a witness.
Meaney, a semi-retired freelance journalist, turned to social media.
“Any Australians downtown I can buy a coffee for?” he wrote on the local Reddit forum on Thursday.
“You do not need to be registered as a current voter, you just need to be an Aussie with eyes. And a mouth so I can buy you a coffee downtown!”
While voting in today’s referendum is mandatory for Australians in the country, those residing abroad have the option of de-registering themselves from the voter’s roll.
On Friday afternoon, Meaney headed to the Australian-owned Bear & Joey Cafe on Cook Street, wearing unmistakably Aussie headgear — an Akubra‑style hat — so he could connect with a potential voting witness.
In the end, he got his witness at a different coffee house on Cook Street. Julia, a fellow Australian, managed to track him down after he posted an update on Reddit.
“I wanted to help a fellow Australian and support him in his civic duty,” she said, adding that it was also nice to meet a fellow Australian in town.
The two briefly connected over shared background. Then the ballot was duly signed by 3 p.m. at Moka House, in time for the mail-in deadline.
While many online offered their support, only one person showed up, Meaney said. “I expected a bigger Australian community here, but they’re all in Whistler,” he quipped.
Meaney, a dual citizen who has been living in Canada since 2019, said he re-registered in the polls so that he could vote Yes.
Australia is behind Canada in terms of its Indigenous representation by about 30 years, he said, noting that B.C. has recognized the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and has been actively repatriating land to First Nations.
“There’s a greater contact here I find with First Nations,” Meaney said. “In Sydney, where I’m from, I didn’t know any of the Aboriginal people. I didn’t engage.”
Polls show the “Yes” vote is on track for a defeat, but Meaney said he wanted to send in his ballot regardless. “If it comes down to the wire, they’ll be counting my vote.”
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