TORONTO (Reuters) -- Redress of a wrong that was done away with 80 years ago is becoming a factor in how thousands of Chinese Canadians vote in the Jan. 23 federal election, adding to the complexity of predicting the election's outcome.

Many Chinese Canadians want the country's political leaders to apologize for a discriminatory head tax charged on Chinese immigrants from the 1880s to the 1920s, and perhaps even to find a way to compensate Chinese immigrants or their families.

Community leaders said on Friday that an informal apology made by Prime Minister Paul Martin this week was an important first step, although it did not go far enough.

The head tax was originally set at C$50 a head (U.S.$43 at current exchange rates), but later raised to C$500.

"In the past we Chinese over 50 tend to vote Liberal because we are grateful immigrants," said George Lau, co-chair of the Ontario Coalition of Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families, a group set up to lobby for redress. Speaking through a translator, he added: "But this issue of the Chinese head tax is changing our minds. I am a prime example. Now I am reevaluating my vote. I am not dedicated to the party anymore because the party has not done a fair job."

Chinese voters have already started focusing on how individual candidates respond to their demands, and the Chinese Canadian National Council listed Toronto's hotly contested district of Trinity-Spadina as one of 20 constituencies where Chinese voters could determine the outcome.

The seat, which includes one of Toronto's two big Chinatowns, is held by Liberal Tony Ianno. But he came in just 805 votes ahead of New Democrat candidate Olivia Chow in the 2004 Canadian election, a margin of 1.5 percent.

"This has captured the interest of voters. This is something they feel they can do something about," said Avvy Go, legal counsel for the coalition.

A number of Liberal members of Parliament have already joined opposition leaders in calling for an official apology for the head tax in the House of Commons, a move that would go beyond Liberal proposals to put aside C$2.5 million ($2.1 million) to educate people about the issue.

Three of the Liberals, including Industry Minister David Emerson, are from Vancouver districts that have the highest concentrations of Chinese Canadians in the country.

"Under evolving international legal standards, an apology does not necessarily imply liability," CBC Television quoted Emerson as saying.

But not all Chinese Canadians say they will vote according to their candidate's view on the head tax issue.

In a Chinatown vegetable market in Trinity-Spadina, Kay, who declined to give her last name, said the issue was not influencing her vote. "It doesn't affect me," she said.

"No one in my family paid the head tax, so I am voting based on the candidate's platform, not the head tax issue."