Sure, there’s plenty about political lawn signs you can learn on the Elections Canada website,  but don’t you trust the lawn sign experts of 1 Hour Signs Niagara even more? :)

WHEN CAN ELECTION LAWN SIGNS GO UP?

Municipalities in Ontario have varying by-laws outlining the rules of when a campaign yard sign is allowed to go up.

For example, the Niagara Falls sign by-law  says that federal election signs can only go up the day the “Writ of Election” is dropped and municipal election lawn signs can start being placed up to 45 days before Election Day.

For another example, check out the St. Catharines election sign by-law which says municipal election lawn signs can be displayed 30 days before Election Day.

We recommend looking up your cities by-laws before ordering or displaying your lawn signs.

WHAT CONTENT IS ALLOWED ON ELECTION LAWN SIGNS?

There are no official content rules outlined by the Canada Elections Act.

However, jurisdictions across Canada will have rules in place that apply to the content of all publicly displayed advertising signs, like the part of the Ontario sign policy that states:

“To ensure that signs on public lands do not convey a message which promotes violence, hatred or contempt against any individual or identifiable group.”

Many Niagara city sign by-laws outline rules like you can’t use illuminated signs. 

We should also consider the court of public opinion.

If the purpose of a campaign yard sign is to win over more public support, we’ll want to make sure the message displayed is in good taste.

Other election sign rules to be aware of involving where they can be placed:

  • Political lawn signs cannot be placed in, on or around a building where voting takes place
  • Signs that are considered safety hazards may be removed.
  • You can place election signs on private property, with permission of the land owner

HOW MANY CAMPAIGN LAWN SIGNS SHOULD YOU ORDER?

First thing to know is that the answer to this is heavily dependent on whether it’s for a municipal, provincial or federal election since a regional campaign obviously won’t require as many as a campaign run on the national level.

One recommendation is to keep it simple by ordering 1 lawn sign per 30 registered voters, but another more detailed calculation you could try is the following:

Population X expected turnout (%) X vote goal (%) divided by name recognition per lawn sign (6-10).

Let’s use Haldimand county as an example to run the numbers.

50,000 (X) 0.42 (X) 0.52 / 6 = 1,820 lawn signs.

You can adjust the name recognition per sign up to as high as 10 to get things to fit into your budget

For example: 50,000 (X) 0.42 (X) 0.52 / 10 = 1,092 lawn signs.

This calculation should help give you a general idea of the number of lawn signs a campaign needs for an election, then you can scale up or down from there based on your goals and budget.

If you’re looking for a personalized quote for your lawn sign needs, please send in a quick quote form https://onehoursignsniagara.com/political-lawn-signs.php and we will be happy to get you more details.