Signs! Signs! Everywhere a Sign.
Blockin' out the scenery, blowin' my mind.
Do this, Don't do that...
Hey! Can't you read the sign?
(5 Man Electrical Band)
Over the last two weeks I have been traveling through small town and rural Southern Ontario from Wareham :
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Three major / side trips / return routes |
West to Stratford via a diagonal through Arthur, back through the edge of Kitchener - Waterloo.
To Stirling via 10/410, through Toronto and along the 401, then returning by going north to 7, through Peterborough, past Lindsay, side roads over to Bradford, then over past Alliston and along 89, then 10 at Shelburne.
To Morrisburg, largely a repeat of the to home section above down to the 401 near Trenton (along 45 when I missed a turn) then along the 401. This included a side trip up to a small village just south of Smith's Falls. The home leg was north from outside Belleville, (again a bad turn) through Campbellford, (eventually) up to 7 again, with a repeat of the legs from Havelock.
So a lot of road miles. This last (and longest) trip completed Sunday - the day before the election itself.
What I observed, basically the last two weeks of the 2025 Canadian Election, at least for a big chunk of Southern Ontario :
There were very few party election signs placed on private home properties. The vast majority of signs were placed on public road allowances (1) Most typically this was easy to judge, as election signs were usually placed just where the gravel of the shoulder turned to grass. On a very rough count, only about 1/8 Conservative signs were clearly on private home properties, for Liberal is was about 1/5.
Conservative party signs were clearly the largest number, more than the rough total of all other parties combined.
Conservative party signs were most often the largest, often double the size of other parties.
Conservative signs were often placed in multiple groupings, although single signs for Conservative were seen (and usually as larger size).
If there was a sign for an alternative to Conservative, there almost always would be a Conservative sign as well. Often at a larger size.
Through these largely rural areas, perhaps predictably, signs for NDP and Green were uncommon. In some places there would actually be more signs for the Peoples Party (2) than these other two significant parties combined.
I did see a number of (offensive) Anti-Liberal signs and flags. These always mimicking Conservative signs (colours, fonts, slogans). Both 'Fuck Trudeau' and 'Fuck Carney' versions. (Worth noting I saw not a single anti-Conservative type).
And what was my take away from these observations?
- In this election, people are NOT illustrating there party affiliations. There may be a number of reasons for this, but I expect concern over bad reactions from neighbours with opposing views is the reason. (This certainly why our household chose not to place a sign)
- The Conservatives clearly had the largest budgets for signage (indicated by size and numbers).
- The Conservatives clearly were the most aggressive in terms of placement. This seen by the tactic of multiple signs at one location, the placing of a sign next to others.
All this leads me to believe the use of political signage is clearly NOT any indication of actual public voter support. Signs placed on what is clearly * public * land are no indication of what the actual voters think.
1) In rural areas, the road set back amount varies (here in lower Bruce, the distance is '30 feet measured from the centre of the road). Typically however you can trace the line by the distance farm fencing has been placed. In communities with side walks, I judged anything beyond the household side of the walk to be private. If there were also real estate signs, I judged those to be on private, and used that spacing.