With a federal election expected to be called as soon as this weekend, Canadians will soon be inundated with campaign signs from people from all political parties trying to convince voters to cast a ballot in their favour.
Even though the writ hasn’t been officially dropped, there are already signs popping up around Calgary.
But how do you tell if those signs are legal — and what are the rules surrounding election signs?
“We are very busy right now because this Sunday, they’re potentially going to announce the election, so a lot of candidates are starting to call us,” said Edward Yakiwchuk, owner of Sign Guru.
During a typical election campaign, Yakiwchuk expects to install up to 200 temporary signs.
“Not only do the candidates follow Elections Canada rules — and they have a large variety of rules — but every municipality has their own rules. They have compliance with regards to putting up the sign at a certain time and taking down the sign at a certain time, and that’s all governed by the city bylaws,” said Yakicwchuk.
Insp. Susan Wall with Calgary community safety asks anyone who wants to set up a sign on private property to make sure they have permission — and respect the bylaws for signs in public spaces.
“You can’t place signs on a prohibited highway in playgrounds or in school zones, you can’t place them within 15 metres of an intersection, 10 metres of a crosswalk or two meters of driveways — because that creates a safety concern for pedestrians and vehicle users,” said Wall.
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Signs from different candidates should be placed 20 metres apart, and all signs should be removed within 72 hours of when the polls close.
Any violating sign bylaws can face fines from $75 to $1000 per sign — plus the cost of removing the signs and any damage they may have caused.
“We do an education-first approach and we get much of our compliance through that approach, so we haven’t had to issue much in the way of fines in that respect,” said Wall.
“As annoying as they might be, we treat those candidates who own those signs just as we do anybody else who has legally placed a sign. And we try to educate and use that model to bring compliance,” added Wall.
Anyone who has a complaint about a sign is asked to call the city complaint line at 311 or file a complaint online through the city’s website.
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