Altmann candidate slate won't be denied as Stouffville Road fence painted

Volunteers come out hot Labour Day Monday to paint for candidates: 'I offered to add their colours as a show of support'

Yorkregion.com
September 4, 2018
Tim Kelly

He may have had his election signs removed, but Justin Altmann and his slate of C3 candidates have found a way to show their true colours.

A group of volunteers who support Altmann, who is running for re-election as Whitchurch-Stouffville mayor, and the slate were out in the humid heat of Labour Day Monday and painting up a storm on a wooden fence along Stouffville Road.

The group of a dozen volunteers – none of the candidates were present – used rollers and brushes to paint purple (Altmann’s colour), green (Altmann’s wife Jenny’s colour as she bids for a Ward 5 seat) and red (for incumbent Ward 6 councillor Rob Hargrave) along with four additional colours (representing the other members of the C3 slate) on the fence. They added black for good measure.

It was just last Tuesday (Aug. 28) that the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville bylaw officers removed campaign signs the slate had installed the previous weekend on what was to be their campaign office at the corner of Hwy. 48 and Stouffville Road.

The explanation from the Town was that the signs were installed on a building in a location not zoned for a campaign office and also that they were in breach of a bylaw stating signs cannot be erected before Sept. 24.

Stouffville resident Randy Debaissi, who spoke for the volunteers, said he believed “what they (Town bylaw officers) did to the C3 candidates was uncalled for and unwarranted,” when the campaign signs were taken down last week.

“I was a little bit disappointed that bylaw shut down the campaign office. I did look into it, it wasn’t warranted,” he said.

Painting the colours of the C3 candidates on the fence was a response to the removal of the campaign signs, according to Debaissi.

“I offered to add their colours as a show of support to the candidates … it’s not limited to just the C3 (slate), but to all the councillors, whoever wants to put their colours on there,” he said.

Debaissi said he has looked at the bylaws and “everything falls within the bylaw.”

He said the fence’s owner, who he did not want to name, had given the volunteers permission to paint the candidates’ colours on it.

A call to Justin Altmann for comment was not returned by deadline.