SUMMERLAND, B.C. — Some Summerland municipal election candidates are blasting a campaign advertisement, calling it “dirty politics.”
In newspapers delivered Thursday and Friday, a flyer resembling a slate of candidates was distributed to households.
Some candidates’ names are checked off in big, bold letters while others are not.
“I’m not happy about this. I was hoping we’d escape this but it has risen its ugly head again,” says mayoral candidate Peter Waterman, whose name was not checked off.
In 2008, Citizens for Smart Governance broke an Elections Act regulation by running ads without registering as an official third-party sponsor.
This year it did register.
Mark Ziebarth founded the group and says this election is an important and encourages voters to choose the candidates highlighted in his flyers.
“All I am doing is sharing my opinion and my contributors’ opinion on who should be elected,” says Ziebarth.
Four council candidates’ names are completely excluded from the flyer.
“It doesn’t bother me. I don’t want to be part of the games they’re playing,” says council candidate Erin Carlson.
Those whose names were checked off in the flyer have mixed reactions.
While Robert Hacking says he’s flattered.
“I know that there’s lots of community groups with their own lists of their preferred candidates. The fact that this one put some money in it just shows that they’re wanting to get their message out,” he says.
In addition to printing more than 4,000 flyers, Ziebarth also paid for about 4,400 robocalls endorsing mayoral candidate Orv Robson.
Robson says he had no involvement and does not want to be associated with Ziebarth’s campaigns.
Mayoral candidate, Roch Fortin, isn’t checked off on the flyer but doesn’t believe the ads or phone calls will hurt his chances of getting elected.
“Residents read the paper, they listen to the news, they read Summerland’s Chamber of Commerce blog and I was impressed. I think people look beyond the yellow piece of paper (flyer),” says Fortin.
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