HawthorneVillager.com

Might as well cause more fuss....I have say, or ask (especially the Liberal candidate) and all candidates to please stop polluting our town with the freakin lawn signs!! I was driving down Derry from Trafalgar onwards and at one point I'm bombarded with Liberal signs!! Do they take us for idiots? I mean one every km or so is pleanty. I think it actually does them a disservice to their cause when they do overkill on the lawnsigns on public property. And by the sounds of it, it may not get better after this election as there is rumblings of a federal election too!

This is part of our freedom that we all cherish.

does the bylaw prohibit placing signs on public property or are political signs exempt?

Proposed changes to the electoral system

Currently, Ontario elects Members of Provincial Parliament (MPPs) using the single member plurality, or first past the post, system. In this system, each voter gives one vote to a candidate in an electoral district; the candidate with the most votes wins and is charged with representing all voters in the electoral district. In most cases, the party with the highest number of elected candidates is asked to form a government.

The Ontario Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform has proposed a mixed member proportional representation system. In this system, a voter casts two votes - one for a candidate (or 'local member') and one for a political party. The local member is elected in a first-past-the-post style election and represents the electoral district, while the political party vote determines, in conjunction with the number of elected local members belonging to each party, how many list members a party receives. A list member is a candidate on an ordered list that a party issues before the election; if the MMP formula determines that a party can have more seats than it won locally, it receives a "top up" number of list seats. Under this new system, the Legislature would have 129 seats: 90 local members (70% of the Legislature) and 39 list members (30% of the Legislature).

In the proposed system, list members are assigned using the a Largest remainder method based on the Hare quota. The number of seats is determined by figuring out the "quota" (the number of votes divided by the number of seats) for each seat, and distributing all seats proportionally (including local winners) based on this quota. Fractional seats are given to the parties in rank order of the fractional amounts - bigger fractions first, until all seats are assigned. For cases (expected to be rare) where a party receives more local seats than its share of the party vote, resulting in "overhang seats", in order to distribute seats proportionally to the remaining parties, the Hare formula is reapplied using the total number of seats in the legislature minus the seats won by parties with one or more overhangs.[1]

After local and list members are assigned, a political party's overall share of seats will roughly equal its share of the party vote, thus the results are proportional. The conventions as to which party is asked to form a government would remain unchanged.

The referendum is to be held concurrently with the 2007 provincial election and, if passed, will be in effect in any subsequent election.

From my understanding there are no by-laws with regards to election signs on public property except that on election day, signs cannot be within a certain distance of polling stations. I know the signs didn't make anyone come out to vote in the past municipal election, but for some reason people continue to think elections at that level are insignificant (hence some of the same old dolts in office in Milton/Halton). I don't hate elections signs, I usually put one on my lawn, I'm just not a fan of the overkill on public property.

Signs are always a great way of getting your name out but I agree with some of the posters here, that overkill almost works against you.

I tried as much as possible not to overkill the signs during the election but they are quite difficult to maintain. There was even a situation during the muncipal election where some kids took a number of signs and placed them on one lawn. When the woman who lived at the house woke up, she found almost 50 signs on her lawn.

They are fine when placed in key locations, but no more than one on each side of a street...as long as they dont block drivers or pedestrians views of the road and dont impead safety.

Having a number of them on one road, especially rural...is only asking for problems, especially maintenance of broken or knocked down signs.

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Mike Cluett
Local/Regional Councillor
Wards 1,6,7 & 8

Website | Email mike@mikecluett.ca | Cell (647) 888-9032 | Facebook Page | | Twitter @Mike_Cluett

in my riding (Toronto Centre), you rarely see a sign on public property, the NDP seems to be the most content in our riding to put up signs, they try really hard to take this "Liberal stronghold" each time .

I wouldn't mind having election signs on public property(maybe because of the fact that they are so rare where I live)-they make it actually look and feel like election time. Many times, they are useful at letting people know that there is an election comming up and becoming familiar witht he candidate names.

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Not to bring to many details into it but it happened in the dead of night around 3am. The kids involved (to my knowledge havent been found) put a number of signs on her lawn, some wood stake signs thrown onto her front porch and her door bell rung several times.

Obviously a very stupid act on behalf of some very stupid kids.

I work in Burlington and on my drive around at lunch there were some large liberal signs (3) all within less than 100 m of each other in total .. followed by one PC sign and a half dozen Vote MMP signs. THATS overkill and gives election signs a bad name.

There are quite a few liberal signs for Gary Zemlak dotted around town as well and other parties as well. Its gone a bit overboard if you ask me because Ive never heard of an election won/lost on signs. Name recognition is good, but thats better served earning it at the doors!

_________________
Mike Cluett
Local/Regional Councillor
Wards 1,6,7 & 8

Website | Email mike@mikecluett.ca | Cell (647) 888-9032 | Facebook Page | | Twitter @Mike_Cluett

Couldn't agree more Mike. All the parties are guilty of doing this but I really notice it with the Liberal candidate. Now it won't necessarily sway my vote but it does make me stop and question the integrity of the candidate. I'm also pretty sure that I won't be seeing any of the candidates at my door (which is too bad cause that would make a difference for sure, NOT the signs).

Now in all fairness it IS very difficult for candidates to get out there and knock on every door personally. The job becomes a lot easier for an incumbent who knocks continually throughout the term in office instead of just at election time.

At the very least you should SEE a representative from the campaign at your door with something. There are a number of ways to contact the candidates...if you want information.

Signs are there to compliment name recognition. Unfortunately you cant get party platform or answers to questions on lawn signs.

_________________
Mike Cluett
Local/Regional Councillor
Wards 1,6,7 & 8

Website | Email mike@mikecluett.ca | Cell (647) 888-9032 | Facebook Page | | Twitter @Mike_Cluett

A couple of years ago I remember Nina Tangri who is the PC candidate in Meadowvale for whatever election seems to be happenings (she's run in them all and liberals keep winning).

Well anyhow, she worked the drivethrough window at Tim Hortons, someone took the orders but when you got up to the window it was her working and she'd give you the 30 second spiel on why she should be elected. I can't remember exactly but she might have paid for my coffee too. I thought it was a clever tactic.

I guess if you were a hardcore anti-PC though you would have hated it, heh.