Election Sign Wars

By Ray Rivers

April 13th, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

Each time I ran for office I’d start the campaign by hoping to avoid using lawn signs – but I was always overruled by my campaign team.  Research on the effectiveness of election signs demonstrates that they work, not only for the candidate on the sign, but more generally for electoral turnout.

Research says signs work – they help the candidate and they result in an increased voter turnout.  And yes for those sharp eyed Gazette readers we are aware tat this is an old Trudeau election campaign.

My concerns were primarily about the waste of resources to produce and dispose of so many single use signs.  And then there is the matter of the sight pollution, both during and, often, well after an election.  Lawn signs can also be a divisive issue among neighbours with differing political perspectives.  But by the same token they might help facilitate interest and discussion in the political campaigns begging for our vote.

So it is sad that we keep hearing reports of signs being destroyed, defaced or disappeared.  It is illegal to mess with candidate election signs in a political campaign – considered theft since the sign belongs to the candidate whose smiling face or name graces it.  But it does happen, not that we’ve seen much reported yet in the main steam media.  But then, we’re barely half way through the election period.

Signs on Carlisle Road in Hamilton were damaged. There were signs for both the Liberal and the Conservative candidates. None of the Conservative signs were damaged. The Chuck Phillips sign was torn out of the ground on the front lawn of the house.  It was removed to the side of the driveway.

Reports of sign theft and damage are starting to roll in, however, including one in the PM’s riding in Ottawa.  Locally there are complaints by Liberal campaigns in Milton, Burlington and Hamilton.   Hamilton’s Flamborough-Glanbrook North Brant Liberal candidate, Chuck Phillips, has issued a press release and placed a post on his web site, claiming that he is losing a significant number of signs to somebody.

His Tory opponent claims to have also lost a few signs but didn’t seem too concerned about it.  But then, as a well known incumbent whose team has virtually wallpapered the riding it might be hard to notice should a few signs go missing.

This electoral district has an exceptional turnout rate, averaging around 70%.  So it will be interesting to see if all those red and blue signs still standing can move the needle – and get more folks out to exercise their franchise.   After all, with so much at stake for the country’s future, this is not just another election.

Ray Rivers, a Gazette Contributing Editor, writes regularly applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking.  Rivers was once a candidate for provincial office in Burlington.  He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject.   Ray has a post graduate degree in economics that he earned at the University of Ottawa.  Tweet @rayzrivers

Background links:

Phillips Signs –   Election Signs –   Signs Impact –