Election notebook: Sign removal rules vary
Last word from St. Catharines mayoral candidates; Third-party advertisers signed up
Rules on removal of election signs vary
Colourful election signs dotting lawns across the region will soon be gone, but how fast they are required to come down depends on the municipality.
Election sign bylaws vary from place to place and some candidates can’t doddle.
In St. Catharines, Niagara-onthe-Lake and Lincoln, candidates are given seven days after the election to remove their signs.
Fort Erie candidates have five days.
Welland, Pelham and West Lincoln give their candidates a mere three days to remove signs.
But the biggest crunch is in Thorold, Niagara Falls, Grimsby, Wainfleet and Port Colborne, where candidates have 48 hours to pull out their signs.
If candidates aren’t using their signs again in four years they may be able to recycle them.
Niagara Region says its recycling centre can accept corrugated plastic election signs. They can go into residents’ blue boxes once any metal or wooden stakes are removed and will be picked up on collection day.
St. Catharines mayoral runners-up say thank you
Mayoral candidate Johnny Tischler says he doesn’t regret his experience running for the city’s top job.
In a video posted on Facebook, Tischler thanks his supporters and encourages others thinking about politics to give it a shot.
“This was something that I felt I needed to do and I would strongly encourage anybody to give this a try,” said Tischler, owner of Sonic Tattoo and Niagara Laser. “Running for a ward councillor or mayor or any municipal position is pretty much the first step of politics or trying to get involved in the area you live in.
“And what an experience. What a great experience. I do not regret this at all.”
Monday’s election had Walter Sendzik way ahead of the pack with 21,574 votes, or 71.85 per cent support. Richard Stephens received 5,834 votes, Tischler 1,465 and Tunde Soniregun 1,153.
Tischler said he didn’t expect to win in challenging an incumbent and addressed the fact voter turnout wasn’t great. St. Catharines ended up having the lowest turnout in the region, at 33.64 per cent.
“If we had the remaining voters participate, then I feel percentages would have varied a little bit. But if people are uninterested in taking a part of this process then unfortunately things will stay the same the way they are.
“But I do want to congratulate Walter, absolutely. The democratic process was used and worked. Of the people that voted, they chose Walter. In that case, he deserved to win.”
Tischler hasn’t ruled out running in 2022, but said he’ll see how the next four years shape up.
Stephens, in a mass email Tuesday, said he wanted to thank the people who supported and voted for him.
He also wanted to thank all citizens who voted — even if it wasn’t for him.
“Living in a democracy is privilege that only works if people exercise their right to vote,” he wrote.
“As for the 70 per cent that can’t be bothered to vote, they have forfeited their right to bitch and moan about the city, they could have voted for Stephens.”
A dozen third-party advertisers registered
Niagara had 12 individuals or groups sign up as third-party advertisers under new election regulations that came into effect this year.
There were 25 registrations altogether.
A Better Niagara, a non-profit organization aimed at engaging citizens and endorsing candidates it deemed were an asset in municipal politics, registered in all 12 Niagara municipalities.
Ottawa-headquarted antiabortion group Campaign Life Coalition registered in three municipalities — Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Wainfleet.
Another 10 third-party advertisers registered in various municipalities.
Third-party advertising is paid advertising that supports or opposes a candidate.
In previous elections, advertisers for or against a candidate didn’t have to identify themselves, could spend unlimited amounts of money and didn’t have to report their financial activities.
Under the new changes to the Municipal Elections Act, thirdparty advertisers had to register in the municipality in which they planned to advertise, whether it was on paid social media, websites, newspapers, TV, radio, billboards or signs. They were required to be independent of candidates.
Third-party advertisers had to register before they spent money or accepted contributions and had a spending limit for their campaigns based on the number of eligible voters in a municipality. In St. Catharines, the calculation was more than $9,800.
It was unknown before the election what the uptake for third-party advertising would be because it was such a new concept.
Across the region, Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Pelham had the most third-party advertisers registered with four in each municipality.
St. Catharines, Fort Erie, Wainfleet and Welland each had two registered third-party advertisers.
The remaining municipalities of Grimsby, Lincoln, Port Colborne, Thorold and West Lincoln each had one third-party advertiser, A Better Niagara.