Kingston candidates react to election sign ban on public property

With the federal election called on Wednesday, this campaign will mark the first time Kingston candidates will not see election signs on every corner in the city.

This is due to a new city bylaw that bans campaign signs on municipal property.

The bylaw was passed by council in July, despite some councillors objecting on the grounds that it may favour incumbent candidates.

It’s a worry that is also shared by Candice Christmas, Green Party candidate for Kingston and the Islands, who purchased two billboards in the city.

“Mr. Gerretsen is a household name,” Christmas said about Mark Gerretsen, the incumbent Liberal candidate.

“Some of us who are new to the campaign trail don’t have the recognition, so a strategy to change that was to purchase the billboard and get the ‘Vote Christmas’ out there”

First-time Conservative Party candidate Ruslan Yakoviychuk called the ban “undemocratic.”

Nevertheless, not all of the candidates are worried about the ban.

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Gerretsen, who is hoping to secure a second term as MP for Kingston and the Islands, told Global News that the ban isn’t all-encompassing.

“Signs are still allowed on private property, so we have a lot of private property ones going up today,” Gerretsen said.

“It doesn’t affect our campaign, our NDP campaigns are built on a strong ground game, getting in contact with voters and getting that personal connection,” said Barrington Walker, NDP candidate for Kingston and the Islands.

As for the newest party on the campaign block, the People’s Party of Canada’s local candidate Andy Brooke said it’s not affecting his party at all.

“My position has always been the signs didn’t mean anything … they were an eyesore,” Brooke said.

Despite the added hurdle of no election signs on municipal property, all five Kingston and the Islands candidates say since the writ dropped on Wednesday, their campaigns have shifted into high gear, and will keep ramping up to the federal election on Oct. 21.

— With files from Alexandra Mazur.