Letters

Election will be “most wasteful ever”, says former candidate

October 8, 2014   ·   1 Comments

The 2014 Aurora municipal election will be remembered as the most wasteful election ever.
Everywhere I turn our beautiful town has been littered with a barrage of hideous plastic campaign signs. With a gaggle of candidates trying to attract voters to pick them for one of the eight available council spots, it appears that councillor candidates are spending their money in the hopes that the voter will pick them.
Following that logic, perhaps voters will determine that the person that wastes the most money on signs should be the person to entrust our tax dollars with. I don’t think so. Or, perhaps voters will use choose their councillors based on the graphics on their sign, the picture of the candidate (maybe even with fancy lighting), or a really great slogan (like – “A proven leader”).
I don’t think so. The only thing the citizens of Aurora are seeing is people who wasted thousands of dollars to blemish the beauty of our town.
Now, recognizing that I was the NDP candidate in the 2014 Provincial election, and that I had 100 small election signs displayed around town, you may be thinking “here is the kettle calling the pot black.” I, like other candidates, had been drawn into this wasteful and environmentally destructive practice, as a result of following the rules like everyone else. The Town of Aurora has the ability to fix this broken game.
It is time that the Town of Aurora makes it illegal to post election signs on public property. That way, candidates could only post their signs on private property, which would send a clear signal to other citizens about the support they have. This would drastically cut down on plastic election signs in landfill after the election, and better foster dialogue about the candidates.
This would send the “promotion” of candidates to the web, where full information could be provided on each candidate.
So, here is my call-out to anyone who wants my vote. Any and all candidates who commit to supporting a motion making the display of election signs on public property illegal has my vote. Any candidate that limits how much they spend on election signs has earned my trust.

Angus Duff
Aurora

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