The City of Pitt Meadows wants to review its election sign bylaw this year to figure out a way to prevent the placards from popping up all over public property.
The bylaw, though, won’t be looked at until after November’s civic election.
“It’s a thing of pollution for me,” Mayor Don MacLean said at a committee meeting last week.
“I think we’d have a better turnout [for elections] if people were forced to go door to door and sell themselves.”
Election signs are a pet peeve for the mayor, who won’t be seeking re-election this year. Now in his fourth term in office, MacLean posts few signs during civic campaigns and restricts them to private property. He has reused his mayor signs for the past decade.
Coun. Gwen O’Connell seconded MacLean motion’s that directed staff to review the bylaw, while councillors Bruce Bell, Tracy Miyashita and Deb Walters voted against it.
O’Connell said in the 2008 election, John Clancy, a Pitt Meadows resident who vied for a seat on council, earned more than a 1,000 votes without posting an election sign.
Walters, who will be seeking the mayor’s chair in November, believes a “good old-fashioned handshake and minute of someone’s time” works better than a sign, but did not support a review of the bylaw.
“It’s unfair to people who are running for the first time,” she added.
Bing, who will also be seeking the mayor’s chair, shared MacLean’s concerns about visual pollution, but thought it was self-serving for the city’s current council to call for a review.
Committee’s recommendation for the review was set to be voted on by council on Tuesday.
