Sign of the times
City’s bylaw limiting election signs a strange blow to democracy – and the competition
Incumbent city councillors have name recognition, a track record, and experience heading into this fall’s municipal election. But all these advantages aren’t enough for them.
They’ve now fixed it so they’ve got the law on their side too.
In a curious and little-noticed legislative attempt to ensure their own political self-preservation, they’ve passed a bylaw limiting the number of election signs that can be put up around town.
Put up more than two signs for a candidate along the side of any piece of property – even your own – and you can expect to get a fine of up to $10,000 from the City of Kelowna. This strange and silly law took took effect Tuesday, which under provincial law is the first day candidates can put up campaign signs.
The city says the law is a reaction to complaints from the public about the signs being a form of visual pollution. How many such complaints? Was it 100? Was it 1,000? Nope. It was 35. That’s the total number of people who complained about signs during the 2011 civic election campaign. And those complaints cover all sorts of things, including the obvious and understand- able safety consideration where a poorly placed sign may block a driver’s sightline at intersections, not necessarily the number of signs.
But at their June 23 meeting, council still instructed to staff amend the election bylaw limiting the number of campaign signs to two per candidate, per frontage, a law that applies to both public and private property.
So signs have been restricted in response to . . . a wholly imaginary belief on the part of incumbent councillors that many people don’t like the sight of signs. And that’s the most charitable interpretation of council’s actions.
Another view is that incumbent councillors simply don’t want to see the names of people who are trying to take their job spread all over town on election signs. ‘Let’s have a nice quiet election, without too much bother or campaigning. That’s how we can get ourselves back into office,’ the incumbents might have been thinking.
Even if there are a few sign-haters out there, why in the world would city hall be letting them set election policy? Voter turnouts are bad enough, sometimes below 20 per cent, without the city taking measures that essentially limit public awareness.
A proliferation of election signs – in all their colour, assorted sizes, and clever or boring messages – is fun and festive. They show that, for a few weeks every few years, civic life is vibrant and people do care about who governs them.
Honestly, restricting election signs is the kind of thing you’d expect from Putin’s Russia.
Some may argue a candidate shouldn’t be able to “buy” an election by placing so many signs around town that prospective voters are somehow hypnotized into supporting that candidate when they get to the ballot booth.
But as every local election shows, there’s no correlation between how much a candidate spends and whether they get elected.
In the 2008 election, for example, the average candidate for council spent $3,000. Three candidates spent three times that amount, and didn’t come close to being elected. In 2005, then-mayor Walter Gray vastly outspent challenger Sharon Shepherd, and still lost.
Money doesn’t win elections. People win elections, especially those people who are popular, intelligent, well-connected and who have a platform and ideas that are in sync with the community’s needs and desires.
I hope there’s a candidate out there who has the chutzpah to directly challenge the city’s goofy sign-squelching bylaw. He or she ought to put up three election signs in his or her own yard, then phone the bylaw department to rat themselves out.
Invite the media to come get a photo of a bylaw officer writing a $10,000 ticket for having one too many signs of themselves, on their own property. A picture like that would get good play across the country.
It would illustrate how Kelowna may be open for business, unless of course you’re in the sign-making business. Then you might want to ply your trade where democracy isn’t a dirty word.