Election season is now in full swing.
Advertising pieces have already hit mailboxes and doorsteps. Signage now casts a pall on most intersections and rights of way.
Some have deployed social media and other strategies to communicate directly with potential voters, thereby avoiding the necessity to be entirely accurate with what they post.
Community groups and chambers have established candidate nights where the public may or may not get a chance to ask a question.
The point is, despite the foibles that come with elections, tremendous effort goes into running for office and ensuring local democratic institutions prevail. Significant expense ensues too, although we notice many canny candidates have been able to re-use signs from a previous run for office.
It is a good time in the election cycle to thank candidates for running and encourage voters to respect the effort involved.
A call was fielded at our office this past week about election signs, which brings up this topic of respect. Someone took a sign of a Centre Wellington candidate and replanted it in Eden Mills – twice actually.
We aren’t as quick to conclude this as being a nefarious plot to confuse voters, as was suggested to us, but there is a respect issue for sure. Signs are not to be tampered with and if being decent wasn’t enough, stealing and ruining signs can result in the perpetrator facing charges.
Historically signs have been the target of graffiti, thievery and destruction. It really isn’t cool to destroy something of others, and in some cases, it can be viewed as very hurtful by the candidate or their family. Signs aren’t cheap either, so hopefully this election season the dirty tricks do not happen.
Another show of respect, which is a little harder to qualify, is avoiding the trap of making things personal against candidates. This isn’t an easy task, particularly when opinions in some cases can be polar opposites. Harmony within the community is far better served in the long run when conversations are elevated to the topic at hand rather than the speaker’s perceived negative attributes. Name-calling always has had a way of dumbing down a conversation.
As the campaign unfolds, our Newspaper will be there. A special edition with comments from all candidates will be published on Sept. 27. That introduction to voters will coincide with candidate night coverage and general municipal government News.
