SYDNEY, N.S. — SYDNEY, N.S. — It could be a sign of the times.
The federal election is less than three weeks away and a record-setting 14 people — seven in Cape Breton-Canso and seven in Sydney-Victoria — have tossed their names in the hat for Cape Breton’s two ridings. However, so far, there appear to be fewer election signs dotting the front lawns and street corners of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality than past campaigns. And if Amanda McDougall’s council colleagues agree with her, there won’t be any the next time local residents head to the polls.
McDougall recently put in an agenda request for the next CBRM council meeting so she can ask for a total ban on election signs starting in 2020.
"The reason I asked for that is obviously environmentally speaking I don’t think there’s any need for anybody to be using more plastics than they need to right now,” the District 8 councillor told the Cape Breton Post. “Secondly, we as a council decided that non-profits and small businesses were not permitted to put their signs up because they are aesthetically unpleasing and potentially a distraction to drivers. When we had this conversation I mentioned in chambers that if we’re doings this, if we’re saying to the wider community you are not allowed to put signs up randomly, we should be doing the same thing.”
As a politician and now also executive director of local environmental non-profit ACAP Cape Breton, McDougall is uniquely qualified to talk about election signs. Typically made from corrugated plastic, most end up in the stockpiles of plastic that are accumulating in Canadian municipalities as they struggle to find overseas markets that will accept recyclables. Or, like in McDougall’s case, they end up gathering dust.
She kept her signs after the last municipal election and she’s still trying to find ways to reuse them three years later.
“I still have them and it’s a reminder of a pretty poor choice I made, maybe not being as informed as I am now as to what happens with those types if plastics and the issues that we face in dealing with plastics as a whole,” she said. “I can tell you that when I got a dog I made a pretty fancy dog barrier out of old election signs. They’ve been used for a multitude of different reasons but overall they are useless.”
McDougall said there are plenty of other ways for politicians to promote themselves, ranging from new technologies like social media, to an old-fashioned face-to-face conversation.
“It doesn’t have to be a piece of plastic in someone’s yard,” she said. “I think times are changing. People are more conscious of what they’re putting out there, and if you’re putting a ton of plastic out there, for me personally, I can’t in good conscience keep going with that tradition of campaigns. We now have different ways of promoting ourselves as candidates. You’ve got the never-ending avenues that social media provides. Actually getting back into communities and having things like town hall meetings and gathering spaces and talking one on one — I’m hoping that’s what takes place and we get rid of those signs altogether. If you need to get your name out there, go meet people.”
The federal election takes place Oct. 21.
