Dear editor,
One of the fundamentals of democracy is that multiple competing candidates advertise on signs to promote themselves and earn votes.
Is tidiness of such importance that citizens are willing to limit freedom of expression just for esthetics?
In Canada we are on a four-year election cycle (usually) and campaigning is typically for six weeks. It’s a relatively short length of time to allow for democracy to “clutter the landscape.”
There is a certain irony that our fellow global citizens in the Middle East have been paying a much heftier price to achieve democracy.
There are street protests, violence and death as they attempt to become democratic. Here in the town of Comox there is consideration to limit democracy due to the poor esthetic of cluttered signs.
Limiting this relatively benign freedom of speech is misguided in the larger context of the election campaign cycle being relatively short. Also relative to the importance that advertising plays in helping a candidate get elected in our Canadian democracy.
I predict that in two more election cycles that Tweeting and Facebooking by candidates will make campaign signs unnecessary. Much like typewriters and rotary phones, we will soon see the end of election signs.
Enjoy them while you can. Perhaps they will become collector items for future generations?
Andrena Koch-Schulte,
Comox
