KABUL — Canadian soldiers serving in Afghanistan will get up to six chances to vote in advance polls beginning June 14, but how many will make informed choices from their all-encompassing positions on the far side of the world is another matter.

More than 1,800 of the 2,300 troops stationed in the Afghan capital will be given the opportunity to cast their ballots in the general election slated for June 28. Most of the rest will be on vacation.

Senior staff are in Canada receiving training from Elections Canada as deputy polling officers. Another round of training takes place in Germany this week.

Voting at Camp Julien, the main Canadian base in Kabul; Camp Warehouse, home to Canadian members of the Kabul Multi-National Brigade; and Camp Mirage, a supply base in the Persian Gulf, will take place June 14-19.

A handful of soldiers based at the headquarters of NATO's International Security Assistance Force in Kabul, along with about 15 signallers stationed on a mountaintop overlooking the city, will get two days of voting.

Interest in and knowledge of the election campaign varies widely at Camp Julien.

"We've got lots of people who are concerned with what's going on right now," insists Master Warrant Officer Pierre Cote, who voted in Germany in Canada's 1993 federal election.

"I just go to the gym and I see the TV on the news and people are watching what's going on. It's being discussed, even though we are pretty far away."

Soldiers can monitor news sites at Internet cafes on the various bases where they are stationed. But whether they do or just log into chat rooms is purely an individual choice.

They are given dated Canadian newspapers and magazines in the messes, although public affairs officers distribute printed news stories daily off the web.

But whether they read or absorb them depends largely on the job they have and the responsibilities that go with it.

Capt. Yann Fortin, the officer commanding the contingent's reconnaissance platoon, said he just doesn't have time to follow the campaign nor, as far as he can tell, do the soldiers he commands.

His troops talk about their jobs, going home, family. But not the election.

"Most of my time is spent on ops (operations) or with my guys," said Fortin, a native of Montreal. "I don't watch the news or listen to radio."

He can access the Internet from his office computer, but it's so slow he doesn't bother to use it for anything but the weather forecast. He doesn't read the newspapers.

"I'm too busy and, for now, I just don't have the interest for that."

The only reason Fortin, who watches CNN at home, knew Sunday that former U.S. president Ronald Reagan had died Saturday was because he asked somebody why the American flag by the camp gate was flying at half-mast.

There should have been plenty of campaign news lately to grab the troops' attention.

Prime Minister Paul Martin announced plans last Thursday to raise 5,000 new soldiers to create a new brigade and increase the country's "capacity for peace support."

He promised between $2.5 billion and $3 billion over five years to enhance Canada's international stature, with the bulk of it going to defence.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has promised an extra $5 billion over five years, 20,000 new soldiers, new tanks, new helicopter-carrying warships and heavy-duty transport planes.

Plenty to grab their attention, indeed, but not everyone's.

"I'm not following the campaign as much as I'd like to," said Capt. Catherine MacDonald, an engineer from Antigonish, N.S.

When in Canada, MacDonald says she would be scouring the papers daily for political news. But in Afghanistan more important and immediate things take precedence -- like securing the lives of her colleagues.

"In terms of having to vote in eight days, I wouldn't say I have a good picture of the issues, but I probably know who I'm going to vote for," MacDonald said.

Military policy is important, she said, although she wasn't aware of either party announcements. But, she added, budgetary, social and Canada-U.S. issues weigh heavily in her decision-making.

"I'm looking for a government that will take the Canadian way, that will not follow the line of what our neighbours to the south are doing," she said.

Soldiers -- especially infantrymen, who are notorious gripers -- tend to be cynical about political promises, especially military ones.

Master Cpl. Jean-Francois Bastien of Quebec City was aware of the Tory military promises but not the Liberal ones until he was told.

"I know they're not realistic," said Bastien, who joined the army in 1987 and saw it plunge into the morass of Liberal cuts through the 1990s and then begin rising again in recent years under the same Liberal government.

Bastien, a paratrooper who is trying his best to follow the federal campaign, said he is cynical about politics and political promises "because of the sponsorship scandal."

"It's just the tip of the iceberg for me," he said. "It's the same everywhere, but it's harder to find who does the bad things in Canada than it is in other countries."

Campaign promises are "just like script," he said.

And don't expect the vote in Valcartier, Que., home to members of the Royal 22nd Regiment that forms the core of the battle group now in Kabul, to necessarily reflect the leanings of the soldiers who are based there.

While the Vandoos are primarily Quebecers, the soldiers now patrolling Kabul come from across Canada and the core group of francophone troops are from all over Quebec.

When they joined the military, they filled out a form stating the riding in which they preferred to vote. No matter where they are stationed in Canada, or when, that riding doesn't change unless they formally ask to change it.

So the 1,800-plus who will begin voting next Monday will be doing so for candidates in dozens of ridings, at least, and not necessarily in the riding in which they live.

Maj. Luc Gaudet, who last voted on a deployment in Haiti in 1997, lives in Calgary but casts his ballots for candidates in Sept-Isles, Que., which he left more than 10 years ago.

Cote lives in Valcartier but votes for candidates in Simcoe County, Ont., where he lived and registered early in his 21-year career.

"I never changed it because I thought I would go back and retire there," he said. "I always followed what was going on in that area."

Returning officers expect to be getting special blank ballots and handouts they will give voting troops that list the candidates in their specific ridings. The troops then will write in the candidate of their choice.

Or the Kabul contingent might receive blocks of ballots from all 308 ridings in the country.

Once completed, the ballots will be shipped to the Canadian Embassy in Kabul and transported by diplomatic pouch back to Canada, where they will be tallied and allotted according to riding.