Anti-Trump campaign urges Americans to vote - in Canada

An American activist group says it has an October surprise for Donald Trump – encouraging Americans living abroad to vote against the real estate mogul in next month’s presidential election.

Avaaz, a U.S.-based global activist group, took its campaign to beat the GOP candidate to Trump Tower in Vancouver, B.C. on Wednesday, Oct. 5, to demonstrate and register expats.

Joseph Huff-Hannon, a spokesman for Avaaz at the “United Against Trump” rally in Vancouver, told the Canadian Press that a Trump presidency would affect Canada.

“Donald Trump, beyond being a dangerous president, would be a terrible neighbor to Canada,” Huff-Hannon said. “We want to make sure Donald Trump sticks to the hotel business.”

The group is not campaigning for Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton and any other candidate – its aim is to beat Trump.

The U.S. government doesn’t officially track the number of its citizens living abroad, but it estimates there are more than 660,000 Americans living in Canada, with the largest contingent in British Columbia’s Lower Mainland – about 183,000.

Avaaz, whose other causes include global warming, Syrian refugees and internet neutrality, estimates there are 8 million American living overseas, but said only 12 percent of them voted in the 2012 election.

They point to a University of Oxford report about how overseas voters could influence the 2016 presidential race.

Last month, Avaaz was in Berlin, where it built a cardboard-block wall at the landmark Brandenburg Gate featuring Trump’s face and the message “United to Stop Trump.”

This story was originally published October 6, 2016 at 2:54 PM with the headline "Anti-Trump campaign urges Americans to vote - in Canada."