Signs and Portents

Signs are without a doubt the most expensive and work intensive of any campaign. I prefer to place them with a willing host on private property. They are safer.  I would very much like to hear from anyone willing to have a sign.

Once they are up, a daily round is needed to ensure they are not torn, blown off the stake, folded in the rain or lying on the ground.

There are rules about where signs can be placed on regional roads.

As the weeks of a campaign wear on, candidate stress grows. The late Dick Illingworth was fond of saying about political involvement; "You don't have to be crazy but it helps".

You can't know what it's like without actually doing it. Even while doing it, you keep wondering if you are reading the signs right.

Nowhere are politics more real than at the municipal level.

I time out when I need too by contemplating Toronto's Mayoralty contest.

We hear nothing at all about the Council races. Focus is on the top job.

My grand-daughter Stephanie insists I am a Ford brother supporter. I insist I am not.

It's just amazing politics. Yesterday in a speech the U.S. President made a speech in which he stated. "Might makes right". Might meaning power.

The fascinating aspect about the race is the number of gladiators in the ring. It's impossible to tell where "might" might be hiding.

The press and the Police Association are right in there.

In Aurora we have an incredible battle of the signs.

At this point, nothing can be discerned about any candidate except that some have spent mightily on signs and a mighty amount of work placing them.

I put signs out as late as possible. In one election, I didn't use any.  I received a letter of commendation from a resident for not visually polluting the landscape.

It was nice to receive.

I was not elected.

Last election most of my signs were re-cycled from previous elections.  So I splurged and had several huge signs securely placed in locations of my choosing by the sign-maker.

I drove around to look at them and was mighty pleased with my decision.

Within hours the sign on the north-east corner of Bathurst and Bloomington had disappeared. Panic stations. Was that going to happen to all of them?

Turned out the missing sign was out of synch with regional rules and had been removed.

Yesterday the Town Clerk informed candidates that the Region intends to enforce the rules.

This morning an e-mail circulating from a candidate suggests the Region is only enforcing rules in Aurora and they must be doing it because of a complaint from a candidate who doesn't have any signs.

Twenty eight candidates are in the race. That's a record. I can only focus on one. Me.

I can see who has signs. I can't tell who does not.

I know of one resident sufficiently incensed about the numbers of signs. He is threatening to boycott the election and encourage his friends and neighbours to do the same.