It’s campaign time again in the Canadian electoral calendar—on June 7, the Ontario general election will be held to choose the 124 members of the 42nd Parliament of Ontario.
And here comes that awkward moment when you get up one morning and find out your neighbours’ political preferences.
The grumpy old couple at the corner of the block who spend their time shooting dirty looks at kids who venture too close to their lawn? Yep, Conservative. I knew it! The yoga teacher down the street? Green—colour me shocked. The self-proclaimed neighbourhood leader who would start one of these crazy Homeowners Associations if he could gather support? Ah, funny you asked—when Harper was in power, he was a staunch Conservative and he flip-flopped when Trudeau was elected. The newcomers across the park? NDP and Liberals! They probably didn’t want to offend door-to-door canvassers so they took signs from both parties to be accommodating.
I’m not guessing, by the way. I’m just looking at all these campaign signs planted on most front lawns in the neighbourhood.
To me, this is yet another cultural mystery—why do Canadians, who excel at small talk but generally avoid any potentially confrontational topic, have no problem openly showing support for a political party?
I’m telling you, it wouldn’t go down well in France. Imagine waking up one morning and realizing your upstairs neighbour put up the far-right Front National poster on his door, while your downstairs neighbours are rooting for the far-left Parti communiste français? Your lovely 15th-century building will be on fire by the end of the day, I guarantee it.
If you’ve ever been to a dinner party in France, you’ll understand. The French love to talk about sex and politics while drinking wine—the cliché is kind of true—and political allegiances are taken seriously. Arguing with friends and family is usually acceptable and often unavoidable but physical fights between leftists and skinheads are common enough during protests and people have died. Neighbours already often find themselves at war for a bunch of reasons including noise complaints, tree branches or property lines dispute. If they start get entangled in political feuds, the population of France will be extinct pretty soon.
But since my Green Party neighbour greets the Conservative couple she shares the lawn with, as usual, it must be okay to agree to disagree in Canada.
Beyond this cultural mystery, I find political lawn signs annoying because I consider it easy and lazy campaigning.
“Eh, John, how do we convince citizens to vote for us? Should we build an election-specific platform or something, eh?”
“Oh, no! Let’s just send volunteers to cover the riding with lawn signs.”
“But Bob…”
“Don’t argue with me, John! If peer pressure doesn’t work, worst case scenario, undecided voters will remember the name they see the most in the neighbourhood when they cast their ballot.”
Or at least, that’s how I imagine the decision is made in the war room.
I mean, the Liberals and the Conservatives don’t even bother putting a policy statement on these signs—the NDP at least has the “change for the better” motto, which is admittedly a feel-good bromide—, they only show the name of the candidate and the party logo.
We’re electing a provincial government responsible for healthcare, education, workers’ rights (or lack thereof), transportation and some criminal justice and the parties can’t even print a promise on these damn signs? Come on!
But mostly, I hate lawn signs because they make elections feels like a high-school popularity contest. I don’t vote for a candidate. I choose a party based on its DNA because I want it to embody principles that are important to me. For instance, I’ll never vote for the Conservative Party because their values don’t align with mine. Then I review the platform to see if the way the main issues will be tackled make sense to me. Political parties spend way too much time grooming their respective candidates to make them look smart, family-oriented, approachable, community-focused, etc. I don’t want to hear about the number of kids candidates raised in the community or the church they go to, I just need to know they will be working as a team with the rest of the party.
I wish parties would stop marking their territory with lawn signs. It’s such a lame pissing contest…
I’ll go vote on June 7. Don’t even think of putting a damn sign on our lawn.
Same here! Our election was last year and I didn’t get why everyone felt the need to advertise their candidate on their lawn or all over the highway!
One more bit of advertising I guess?
It’s weird, isn’t it?! And Canadians usually value their property, so it’s even more surprising.
This year is even truer than ever
« Votez con !
Votez … conservateur! »
Case in point: have you heard of Charles McVety? It seems he is a friend of Doug Ford, and he thinks creationnism should be taugh in school with the same value than Evolution theory.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/05/26/canadian-politicians-ally-says-creationism-should-be-taught-in-ontario-schools/
Oh, one of *those*…! Sigh. The Conservative had me at Doug Ford. I mean, we haven’t forgotten about the brother yet.
Ford. Millionnaires pretending to be on the side of the working class… And dumb people believe it.
On a side note, apparently, Macron is in Ottawa this week. Can’t escape far enough, eh… :-/
Moreover, only the NDP has released early its budget and plateform (with a milliard mistake), the conservatives just yell promises of change, à la Trump. The liberals are probably dead for now.
I can’t say I’m super enthusiastic for any of the three major party but since I’m not voting Conservative and that the Liberals pretty much lost already… well, NDP, here I come again.
Well said! *applauds*
I bet friends on which party will be the last to put the signs up and take them down in my riding…might as well make it all at least mildly entertaining…
I’m totally stealing your betting idea, that’s fun! These signs usually stay forever after the election.
You said it!
Popularity contest and also I find it very disturbing how they are campaigning against other parties instead of having a real program. And it works.
And I can’t wait for this election to be over because I actually want to watch series without a “vote conservative, not NPD” ad in the middle. 😀
I can’t stand these cheap ads with cheap attacks! Feels like a lame siblings fight.
Je n’ai pas fait attention au Québec? Je regarderai la prochaine fois 🙂
Je sais que ça se fait en Outaouais : il y a quelques temps, y’avait des pancartes partout pour le candidat qui s’appelait… Couillard. J’ai deux ans d’âge mental, ça me fesait sourire à chaque fois que je les voyais (imagine, avec ce nom… tu ne serais jamais candidat en France!).
Pareil. Je me souviens qu’on en avait rigolé en France quand il avait été élu.
Pareil lol
It is too bad that Trudeau didn’t keep his promise and get rid of the “first-past-the-post” system. This system means that many candidates win their seats with less than half of the vote. In ridings where the Greens or the Liberals don’t have a chance, a vote that for the Greens or the Liberals is really a vote for Doug Ford. As the Liberals have already conceded, people should vote for the NDP if they don’t want the Conservatives to get into power. Conservative governments in Saskatchewan have not proven to be fiscally competent and there is no reason to believe that they will act differently in Ontario. The Conservative government of Grant Devine put Saskatchewan taxpayers $14 billion in debt and the current conservative Saskatchewan Party has put Saskatchewan $1.2 billion in debt so far.
In addiion to getting rid of “first-past-the-post”, I think that Canada should have compulsory voting like Australia. In many cases the most marginalized and powerless people don’t vote even though it would be in their best interests if they did. Also, the over 50 demographic votes more than the 18 to 34 age group. This means that the counted vote does not really represent the will of he people.
The lawn signs on the boulevard in your first picture might be illegal. According to Ottawa bylaws:
“For safety reasons, election signs are not permitted on central boulevards or medians and may not be placed within 50 centimetres of a sidewalk; or where there is no sidewalk, within two metres of the roadway or within 50 centimetres of the edge of a shoulder.”
The final word on this topic should go to the Canadian rock group Five Man Electrical Band who clearly didn’t like signs:
“Sign, sign, everywhere a sign
Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind”
I have the song stuck in my head now 😆
I’m pretty sure most of these signs are “illegal” but at least, campaigns are short in Canada and we just deal with it.
I’m not sure how I feel about compulsory voting… I understand the point but it feels weird to me.