Ahead of Super Tuesday, J.K. Hooper-Macedo started a one-man campaign to make hundreds of long-distance cold calls to people across the U.S., hoping to get them to vote for Bernie Sanders.

The thing is, he can’t even vote.

The 30-year-old from Toronto, who is a call-centre rep and part-time busser at a brunch spot in Parkdale is a Canadian citizen, meaning he’s ineligible to cast a ballot or make donations.

Instead, he’s supporting by volunteering his time, which means ringing almost 300 Americans from his Toronto home.

But why?

“Bernie’s movement is a common expression of humanity,” says Hooper-Macedo. It’s a message that he hopes one day will cross into Canadian politics.

Hooper-Macedo was noticed by the Toronto for Bernie group, an independent group which promotes Americans living in Canada to vote for Sanders.

“What happened was, I was making calls for Bernie, tweeted about it, Toronto for Bernie saw it and contacted me to tell me about further organizing,” Hooper-Macedo said.

Ahead of Tuesday’s Democratic primary, we interviewed Hooper-Macedo on why he decided to start this independent project to promote #Bernie2020.

You can’t vote, so why is it important for you to support Bernie Sanders?

It’s important because Bernie’s movement is a common expression of humanity — it’s the means by which working class folks might actually get a say in how our society functions, to make it more humane, just, and dignified. Bernie asks if we are willing to fight for someone we don’t know — millions of Americans living without healthcare certainly fits that definition. And watching corporate interests consolidate against Bernie was really disheartening — and then I contacted the campaign and discovered that we’re not helpless, and it’s not out of our hands, and there’s more of us than them.

Do you have any personal connection to those in the U.S.?

I have a lot of friends in the U.S. who live in a constant state of precarity, whose parents can’t retire, who have to do GoFundMes every time they’re injured, who couldn’t leave abusive partners because they’d be homeless. Even here in Canada, corporate rent seeking is making our social safety nets less secure. My wife has an autoimmune disease and I’m in and out of therapy, and even with my employer-provided health benefits, we can barely make ends meet. That’s not symptomatic of a healthy society.

Are you doing this in hopes that something like this could happen in Canada?

I do want to push Canadian politics to the left. The current incarnation of the NDP is about as far right as one should be in polite society, and with the death of reconciliation, the militarization of our police, the ballooning housing crisis, it’s going to take a massive change to alter these realities. The reverberating effects of a Sanders’ presidency can’t be ignored. Doug Ford is openly worried about it, and I want him to be. The movement doesn’t start and end with Sanders — the movement is the movement.

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What are you most passionate about as a volunteer of Toronto for Bernie?

As a volunteer, I’m passionate about talking to people about their material concerns, their fears for their future, and building solidarity. Solidarity is one of the best feelings in the world.

Do you think you connect with Sanders’ message because you’re young?

I think young folks and people of colour are a huge part of Bernie’s base — you saw footage of Somali factory workers caucusing for Bernie, all the union workers in Vegas — other candidates aren’t even talking to these folks. That the Bernie campaign is reaching out to these folks, and that his message is one of justice, racial equality, LGBT rights and working class solidarity instead of racial scapegoating and corporate pandering — that’s how we win.

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