There should be a collective sigh of relief sometime this weekend from politicians across Wellington County.
While the results of their efforts this fall will not be known until the late hours of Oct. 27, candidates deserve credit for participating in such a difficult but necessary contest.
Throughout this campaign we have had stories on sign tampering and destruction. We are inclined to believe much of that has to do with weather, but when signs are removed, slashed and deposited someplace else, it’s not much of a leap to suggest it was purposeful. As often happens, the first place fingers are pointed is towards the opposition.
Others have taken the sign carnage very personally. We get that. It is unnerving to go through the effort of purchasing signs and placing them, only to have them destroyed or removed. The fact is it’s illegal to mess with signs and we really wish those involved would find a better hobby.
In Erin, signs for current Mayor Lou Maieron, who is running for county council, and mayoral candidate David Lyver were removed from utility poles at the behest of town staff. That occurrence has been reported to the OPP, according to Maieron, but staff say the signs had to be removed as the poles are private property.
During this election our editor made the choice to limit our letters section to voters only, as opposed to having it abused by candidates looking for free publicity. The other factor is we try at all times to be fair, and with 115 candidates the potential for receiving pages of letters each week or back-and-forth bantering was too great a risk. For the most part, this policy worked fine; however, it would appear some campaigns got a little creative and had people write in taking the candidate’s side or making the candidate’s point. Truth can become a casualty on the campaign trail.
As becomes readily apparent, finding the truth during campaigns is very much a mug’s game. There are competing interests, different perspectives, differing memories of events and differing levels of intellect. About all people can hope for is discovering some common ground on which to base discussions and make decisions.
On election night we will be offering updates regularly on our website and twitter feed. Since election results coincide with our deadline, it will make for a very busy night and Tuesday pulling it all together for the paper.
Although everyone can’t win in such contests, candidates have our admiration for taking a shot at running for council. There are just a few days left – hang in there.
