850 illegal provincial election signs confiscated by Vaughan workers

YorkRegion.com
June 5, 2014
By Adam Martin-Robbins

Some of the candidates vying for a seat at Queen’s Park are flouting the rules when it comes to election signs.

With just more than a week until voting day, Vaughan’s bylaw and compliance department has confiscated 850 illegally placed elections signs from intersections and streets across the city.

The city is home to two provincial electoral districts - Thornhill, which has six candidates, and Vaughan, which has five candidates.

City officials did not identify which candidates’ signs have been confiscated, but not all of them have put  up signs along local streets and at intersections.

In the Vaughan riding, for instance, Progressive Conservative candidate Peter Meffe and Liberal Candidate Steven Del Duca are the most prolific sign erectors.

NDP candidate Marco Coletta, meanwhile, just got his signs and started putting them up in the past week.

Libertarian candidate Paolo Fabrizio says he learned his lesson after many of his signs were confiscated and he was slapped with a $200 fine in the 2011 election. He’s only placing signs on the properties of those who request them.

And a spokesperson for Green Party candidate Matthew Pankhurst said he “has chosen to opt out of plastic signs this election”.

Vaughan’s bylaw prohibits placement of signs on municipal road allowances and on city property. The Region of York, which regulates signage on regional roads, meanwhile, has strict rules about placement.

For example, signs are only permitted at intersections on regional roads; candidates are only allowed one sign per corner at permitted intersections and signs cannot be placed on centre medians, traffic islands or centre boulevards.

Sign bylaw violations are quite common in Vaughan during elections.

By the end of the 2011 provincial election, city and region workers had pulled down 1,676 illegal signs, according to a Vaughan staff report. During the 2010, municipal election more than 15,497 were confiscated.