{"id":21668,"date":"2018-09-20T10:50:40","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T14:50:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=21668"},"modified":"2018-09-20T10:50:40","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T14:50:40","slug":"inside-aurora-sign-of-the-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/inside-aurora-sign-of-the-times\/","title":{"rendered":"INSIDE AURORA: Sign of the TImes"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston<\/strong><\/p>\n

We had a candidate for Council
\nat our door last weekend.
\nActually, this was a bit newsworthy in that to my knowledge, this is the first candidate to drop by our house since the 2006 election.
\nI guess we\u2019re a bit off the beaten path.
\nOr maybe they\u2019ve been scared off by our dog, who we\u2019ve specially trained to bark ferociously whenever local politicians are in the vicinity.
\nJust kidding..
\nIn any case, our recent visitor was the first real hint that the election is underway. Apart from the candidate articles that have been appearing each week in the paper (and is it just me, or do the candidates all sound eerily the same?), there hasn\u2019t been much going on otherwise on the election front.
\nNo debates. Not many ads. It\u2019s been radio silence.
\nThe most visible feature that shows an election is in full swing is the election sign. But with both Regional and Town bylaws restricting their placement until 28 days prior to the election, I guess we won\u2019t be seeing them until next week.
\nTiming isn\u2019t the only thing about election signs that these bylaws restrict. As has been demonstrated by all the recent angst over the Town\u2019s sign bylaws, the world of local signage is full of rules and regulations, including those governing election signs.
\nFor example, a sign can be no larger than 1.2 metres in dimension, cannot be placed within 7.5 metres of a traffic light, and there can only be one on each private property.
\nOne location where election signs seem to mushroom up uncontrollably is at intersections, although that may be more due to the large number of candidates than to overzealous individual campaigners.
\nBut even at intersections there are limits as to how many one can place at them.
\nFor 37 specific intersections in Town (yes, they\u2019re each spelled out in the bylaw, and no, I\u2019m not going to list them here, although it would be a great way of quickly reaching my word count for this column), there can be no more than two signs per candidate, and only one on any one corner.
\nOne location that is completely restricted according to the Region is Yonge and Wellington. At the most significant intersection in Town, and the one where people probably spend the most time looking around while stuck idling in their cars waiting for the light to change, or for the 23 cars ahead of them to turn left, no signs are allowed at all due to various setbacks associated with bus shelters, driveways, hydrants, curbs and the intersection itself.
\nPerhaps the most interesting directions noted in the bylaws are the ones about installing signs. The Town suggests they only be installed between 9.30 am and 3.30 pm. The Region says people installing signs should wear reflective vests and safety footwear.
\nAnd what is the danger of running afoul of these bylaws? For those who dare to put up a sign larger than 1.2 metres, or at Yonge and Wellington, or within 7.5 metres of a traffic light, they risk the full wrath of the Town or Region in the form of \u2026 confiscation of the offending sign, which they can get back after the election.
\nFor those who don\u2019t have signs removed by the local levels of government prior to October 22, they have 72 hours to do so after the election, by which time they should all be gone.
\nThat\u2019s a good thing, because Halloween\u2019s the next week, and it\u2019s scary enough without that visual reminder of who will be looking out for our interests in Town for the next four years.
\nFeel free to e-mail Scott at: machellscorners@gmail.com<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott Johnston We had a candidate for Council at our door last weekend. Actually, this was a bit newsworthy in that to my knowledge, this is the first candidate to drop by our house since the 2006 election. I guess we\u2019re a bit off the beaten path. Or maybe they\u2019ve been scared off by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-columns","category-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5Du","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 20:57:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}