Skip to content

West Vancouver candidates told: election signs 'not the Bowen way'

“Sign, sign, everywhere a sign. Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind.” Except, apparently, on Bowen Island, where locals have an unwritten rule that election signs are just not done.
Bowen sign

“Sign, sign, everywhere a sign. Blockin’ out the scenery, breakin’ my mind.”

Except, apparently, on Bowen Island, where locals have an unwritten rule that election signs are just not done.

Green Party candidate Ken Melamed, who is running in the West Vancouver – Sunshine Coast – Sea to Sky Country riding, admits he was somewhat surprised to find out about the island tradition.

Melamed, who was previously involved in municipal politics as mayor of Whistler, said he was speaking with some of his Bowen organizers this summer and mentioned that he’d get them a supply of lawn signs. That’s when he was told, “We don’t do signs.”

Alison Morse, a longtime municipal councillor on Bowen Island, said the decision to ditch election signs on the island was one candidates themselves came up with during the first municipal election on the island in 1999. “We all sat around and had a little bit of a chat,” she said. “Somebody said, ‘Do we really want to clutter up the landscape with election signs?’”

Since then, the tradition of not putting up election signs – either on public or private property – has continued and spread to include provincial and federal elections. Instead, candidates all put their signs up on one property owned by Telus at the main intersection near to the ferry dock, said Morse.

The no-sign policy isn’t official or written down anywhere, she added. If anyone does put up an election sign, “usually there will be a phone call made by someone,” she said, reminding them of the no-sign rule.

Most candidates don’t bother attempting that, she added. “Are you sending a message that you don’t care what the community’s traditions are?”

Most people on Bowen view election signs as both an eyesore and a “waste of money,” she said. “It’s not the Bowen way.”

A few people have questioned the unwritten policy. In a comment posted online on the issue, island resident Chris Corrigan said the small group that decided there shouldn’t be signs is being “elitist and exclusionary” and giving an advantage to candidates who are already well-known in the community. “Without newcomers being able to get their name out there, you only know who you’ve heard about,” he wrote.

Melamed said the no-sign rule does create a challenge for lesser-known candidates. “We’re a party in emergence,” he said. “We often don’t show up on the pundit panels in major media. It’s an additional challenge for a smaller party.”

The Greens have got around the issue by producing dashboard signs instead, said Melamed, which Bowen residents can place on their car dashboard when heading to the ferry.

Most candidates also still produce brochures and do election advertisements, said Morse.

Dorothy Sitek, a spokeswoman for Elections Canada, said while municipalities can limit the size of signs and put restrictions on their placement, they can’t outright ban them.

“It’s part of the election process,” she said.

Residents also can’t be banned from putting election signs on the property where they live, she said.

Melamed said he’s never been told that signs are banned. But the message is clear to whomever risks putting them up. “Prepare to receive the displeasure of your neighbours.”