Someone is playing dirty pool already with campaign signs.
Centre Wellington Ward 5 council candidate Walt Visser has contacted the OPP to help him find out who has removed and stolen between 125 and 150 of his campaign signs.
Visser said whoever was responsible made nearly a clean sweep, and he has about 20 that are still standing.
“I can’t think of anything more cowardly,” he said of the theft. “There are all kinds of places to confront me … My signs cost $5 apiece and there is the time and effort to put them up.”
Visser said he has been very upset at the move. He has served on local councils off and on since 1988 and nothing like this has ever happened before.
“This has really wracked me,” he said. “This is a personal attack.”
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We thought that Centre Wellington mayoralty candidate Bob Foster had the biggest election signs – until venturing into Minto on Saturday.
Minto Mayoral candidate George Bridge has several that are much larger. None, though, topped councillor Dave Turton’s sign on County Road 7. It was a mobile with a message.
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Many of the candidates for council in Minto took part in the annual Fall Fair parade in Harriston on Saturday at noon, which is okay, because everybody had a good time, and candidate Bridge did not try to drive over incumbent David Anderson with his car. Anderson and deputy-reeve Judy Dirksen and several others rode bicycles in the parade, while Bridge followed them in a convertible.
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Parade participation is okay, but booths at the arena amidst the produce displays? Free popcorn? Perhaps that was a little much.
County councillor Mark MacKenzie drove an antique car in that Fall Fair parade. It was extra effort on his part, considering that he is acclaimed. Then again, the car was a worthwhile part of the parade all by itself.
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The Centre Wellington Chamber of Commerce is running an online forum where people can ask candidates questions.
The first question arrived on Sept. 11. Candidates have answered several of them in varying numbers – except for one. By Sunday afternoon, more than a week after the first question arrived, mayoral candidate Bob Foster had not answered a single question. Anyone wanting to telephone Foster and ask him about his shortage of answers might be a little puzzled, too. His phone number is remarkably difficult to obtain, considering he has been on council for four years. He has refused to allow township staff to place his home number on the township web site, where all the other councillors had their contact information listed.
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Mayoral candidate Joanne Ross-Zuj’s daughter, Kathryn, was wearing a sweatshirt on Sunday at the Terry Fox Run that said to “Re-Elect Joanne Ross-Zuj.” That forced us to ask if the township has not recently passed a bylaw outlawing mobile signs.
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There are several people questioning why county council candidate Bob Wilson left the seat he has held for many terms in county Ward 6 to run against Jean Innes in county Ward 5, thus leaving Centre Wellington councillor Shawn Watters acclaimed in his bid for a county seat.
What really irked some people is that Wilson’s election signs say people should “re-elect” him. They think that, considering he has never held the county Ward 5 seat, that is a bit much, and if anyone is entitled to state, “Re-elect me” it should be Innes, who is the incumbent in the ward..
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Few candidates have shown the enthusiasm for finally winning electoral office than Centre Wellington’s Mike Wisniewski, who has been campaigning since the start of the year. His campaign, with signs out that early, though, means that some of them now look pretty tattered, having faced snow, ice, then spring, and a long hot summer. At least one we have seen on a roadside was overgrown by weeds.
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Centre Wellington Ward 3 candidate Vinnie Green has signs with blue letters on white backing. Candidate John Green has no signs at all. He was acclaimed to the county Ward 2 seat in Mapleton.
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While on the topic of colours, Mayor Chris White in Guelph Eramosa is using signs with black lettering on a white background. Of course, he has added “Re-” in front of “elect.” It’s one way to demonstrate frugality to the electorate.
We have yet to see any of county council Ward 4 candidate Lynda White’s signs, but people travelling in county Ward 4 tell us they are out. They too are black and white.
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Minto politicians are not the only ones getting involved in festivals and fairs. Guelph-Eramosa Township’s mayoral candidate Chris White was at the Eden Mills festival on Friday night. So was councillor Doug Breen, who told one volunteer during the feeding of authors that volunteers were generous with the victuals, and he was surprised to learn “All you’ve got to do is be on the street here and they feed you.”
Attendance counts.
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County Ward 8 candidate Gord Tosh has been the county’s social services chairman for several years now – and that department is heavily involved in the current war or words and court actions between the county and Guelph. Since the city fired the first shots, Tosh was certainly not the aggressor, but he has been unable to defuse the conflict, either. But that has not hurt him politically. He is acclaimed once again in county Ward 8, and he has not faced an election in the first decade of this century.
It’s been an easy ride.
