Monday, February 18, 2008

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

There was some talk a while back on another blog about election signage. In addition to the reasonable and interesting debate, there was the usual "Tories are evil" post about a plethora of supposedly illegal PC signs in Edmonton.
Now how does that saying about glass houses go...?

Courtesy of a faithful reader in Edmonton, it seems that there are a number of rather blatant violations of Edmonton's signage by-law coming from Liberal Bharat Agnihotri's campaign in Edmonton Ellerslie.

You may remember Bharat as the man who got himself ejected from the Alberta Legislature for failing to understand the rules. I'm noticing a pattern here.

Edmonton's sign by-law when it comes to the placement of signs on public property is pretty clear. In addition to rules about distance from the road and non-placement on certain limited access roads, there is a very clear rule (pursuant to Section 1210(1) of Traffic Bylaw 5590, Schedule XII, Part C) that states: "EACH SIGN SHALL HAVE A MAXIMUM SIGN FACE OF 0.6 METRES WIDE BY 1.0 METRES HIGH".

For those like myself who aren't great with conversion factors, that would be roughly 2 feet by 3 feet.

Imagine the surprise when, surrounded by Naresh Bhardwaj (PC) and Marilyn Assheton-Smith (NDP) signage of legal dimensions, Bharat Agnihotri had his crew plunk down enormous 4 foot by 8 foot signs on public property at:
23rd Avenue and 66th Street...















23rd Avenue and 91st Street...














and another public location (unidentfied by the photographer)
Word on the street in Ellerslie is that Agnihotri is running scared. It seems his poor performance as an MLA, combined with a supurb opponent and the PC's rising popularity in Edmonton are making for quite the race in this suburban seat.
Wonder what he'll do with all those illegal signs?

5 comments:

  1. oh Blake, do not go into signs....I can tell you with 100% certainty that a Ms. Janice Tarchuk, an individual I have heard through the grapevine is my MLA (I have never seen any actual proof that said person exists), has illegal signs up in the Bow Valley. This is a particular travesty as it destroys the scenic beauty of this magnificant place.

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  2. The third picture is taken looking southeast at the corner of 66st and 23 ave.

    I have seen many signs in this area, some big and some small. Most of the big ones fall within the 2' x 3' limit. Except for Agnihotri's.

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  3. It's easy to pick at people over signs. Everyone breaks the rules.

    Besides, in terms of public opinion, breaking the rules doesn't matter. Nobody knows the rules (including probably half the candidates themselves.)

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  4. "You may remember Bharat as the man who got himself ejected from the Alberta Legislature for failing to understand the rules. I'm noticing a pattern here."

    Except that Ken Kowalski ejecting him from the house was completely out of line.

    http://www.gauntlet.ca/2007/04/from-speaker-to-speaker.html says it well (even though he's an eeeeeevil liberal).

    Others said in another thread that you're turning into the Cherniak of Alberta Conservatism. I'm beginning to see their point.

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  5. It's ridiculous to think that a campaign sign manager would not know the rules for placing signs. It's their job to know and not really hard to find out.

    Somebody must know about the sign rules since I have heard that in the city of Edmonton they've already had many complaints from the public about illegal/misplaced signs. At 110.00 a pop to have the city remove them, which they say they will do, that's going to add up for any campaign.

    And it is fairly annoying, especially when you are trying to turn at an intersection and you can't see past someone's huge sign that shouldn't be there in the first place. I hope these signs are removed before someone gets hurt.

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