Dancing with the Municipal Election Act

Prior to entering politics, I thought I had a lot of neat ways to promote myself as a candidate. It turns out there are a number of restrictions on where and how you may campaign. Here are just a few examples.

Dundas Cactus Parade

I thought it would be a lot of fun to put a float in the Dundas Cactus Parade. It's a really popular event and I had a great idea: I was going to decorate my Honda Element to look like a Borg cube from Star Trek (the theme is TV and movies). The deadline to enter the parade came up very shortly after I entered the race so I really rushed and got my application in place. 

It turns out that the Parade organizers don't allow politicians to participate. They were very polite about it and I said I understood and was comfortable with their decision since it applied to everyone. No problem.

Corn Roast in the Driving Park

I thought it would be a lot of fun to buy a pile of corn from Dyment's and invite any and all to the Driving Park for a free party - no fundraising would be done. I planned it for the Wednesday before the Cactus Parade and contacted the Elections staff at the City to double check that it was OK.

It turns out that using a public space, such as a City park, for a campaign event could be interpreted as a donation to my campaign by the Municipality, which is strictly prohibited by the Municipal Elections Act. Again, no problem.

Handing Out Cycling Maps at Cactus Fest

For the last five years, I've set up and staffed the Hamilton Cycling Committee booth at the Toronto Spring Bike Show. It's a great way to promote Hamilton to a very wide audience. I have literally handed out thousands of the Hamilton Cycling Maps - it's practically second nature. I thought it would be great to hand out maps at Cactus Fest since so many people visit from across the City and they are a natural conversation starter. Again, I checked with City staff.

It turns out that this activity could also be interpreted as a campaign donation by the Municipality, which, as mentioned above, is bad. No problem.

Inviting Residents to Visit Me at the Dundas Library

I thought it would be nice to have a safe, accessible and central public place to invite people to drop in and chat with me. Having people over to my house seemed odd and asking people to a café didn't seem appropriate since people might feel like they needed to spend money there. I thought the library was the perfect venue - plus I already visit there two to three times per week and they have wi-fi.

It turns out once again that this could be interpreted as a campaign donation by the Municipality. Sigh.

So, that's the kind of week it's been behind the scenes. I want to be quite clear and up-front about this: I am not trying to skirt or break any rules. I am just trying to come up with some fun and novel ways to run my campaign. I completely understand and accept the advice I've been given by the City Elections staff.

I am sharing this with you here as a matter of transparency. I am not infallible but I am committed to fairness and adherence to the rules. Besides, I still have plenty of cool ideas in the hopper!