Candidate calls for region to lift lawn sign ban on municipal property

Several election lawn signs displayed in an overgrown field by the side of the highway

Mary Dahr election signs just outside Liverpool. Photo Ed Halverson

One of the people running to represent Queens in the provincial election says not allowing election lawn signs on municipal property puts some candidates at a disadvantage.

NDP Candidate Mary Dahr says the Region of Queens has removed the signs she placed on municipal sites.

Dahr approached the Region to ask if they would relax their rules.

“They were defending their rules and they police it very good but that’s as far as they would go,” said Dahr. “Just defending their rules, they were not budging on it.”

Dahr is concerned the policy could exclude people from being involved in the electoral process.

“Anybody who’s a minority, it’s a barrier, it’s not inclusive at all. I’m hoping that they will change their rules on that,” said Dahr.

Election signs line both sides of a main street

Lawn signs for Queens candidates line both sides of Bristol Ave in Liverpool. Photo Ed Halverson

According to Elections Nova Scotia, each municipality can determine whether or not lawn signs will be permitted on municipal property.

Mayor Darlene Norman says the Region of Queens has a long-standing policy of not allowing campaign signs on their lands.

“We strongly believe that people in Queens County do not want to see election signs posted on public property. They do not want to see them in parks, they don’t want to see them around cenotaphs, they don’t want to see them at beaches, they don’t want to see them at Queens Place,” said Norman.

NDP leader Gary Burrill, who was campaigning with Dahr in Liverpool on Monday takes the sign controversy in stride

“I don’t think there’s ever been a provincial election in Nova Scotia where there weren’t sign questions and lots of them,” said Burrill. “That goes with the territory.”

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Green Party announces clean harbour advocate as Queens candidate

A man smiles in front of a white wall

Green Party Candidate for Queens Brian Muldoon. Photo submitted by Brian Muldoon

With the addition of a Green Party candidate, Queens now has a full roster of candidates in the upcoming provincial election.

Beach Meadows resident Brian Muldoon has stepped forward to carry the banner for the Greens.

Muldoon has been active for the past several years opposing the expansion of fish farms in Liverpool Bay.

He says it’s that work that inspired him to stand for the Greens.

“The easy thing is to do nothing, the difficult thing is to run and you know, I can’t sit back.”

Muldoon sees himself as the underdog in a race against better funded and better staffed campaigns.

“I don’t have a team of 18 people in my back pocket out there knocking on every door possible. I know that and I won’t be able to hit major doors in Queens County.”

Muldoon intends to reach as many people as he can in person but hopes social media can help get his message to a wider audience.

As the name indicates, the environment is the top issue for the Green party however Muldoon says they have a fully considered platform to address a range of hot-button

When asked for his 30-second elevator pitch, this is what Muldoon had to say.

“You know what, I’m a very passionate and enthusiastic individual that will make sure your voice is heard in this community and in this province. I will go to bat for you and I want to make sure that any government that is in provincially, will be held accountable. And our environment means so much to us. We have the most beautiful beach, I live in Beach Meadows, and we don’t want our treasur es, I mean, that’s a treasure, Beach Meadows Beach, along with other parts and we’d better keep that pristine, the way it is.”

Expect to see Muldoon and the other candidates vying to represent Queens, Mary Dahr for the NDP, the Liberals’ Susan MacLeod and incumbent PC candidate Kim Masland step up their campaign efforts as the August 17 election day approaches.

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Nova Scotians can expect safe and open election

Nova Scotia and Canada flags flying on a flag pole against a blue sky

Photo Ed Halverson

Voters will see a few changes as Nova Scotians go to the polls during a pandemic.

The number of available seats has increased from 51 to 55 due to the redrawing of the riding map.

Queens will now have its own representative after the former riding of Queens-Shelburne was split in the realignment.

The director of policy and communications for Elections Nova Scotia Naomi Shelton says voters will have a variety of choices on how to cast their ballot in the upcoming provincial election.

“Voters are encouraged to vote early and vote safely. They can apply for a write-in ballot if they wish to vote by mail or vote at home. They can also vote safely, in-person with COVID precautions in place at all voting locations and those would be very similar to what you would experience in your community at a local retail experience,” said Shelton.

Those precautions include wearing masks, maintaining social distancing and hand sanitizing protocols.

Shelton says Nova Scotia is prepared to safely conduct an election during COVID by watching how the vote was carried out in neighbouring provinces.

“We’ve been able to learn from those lessons learned and gain knowledge from those best practices that those other provinces have had so that we feel that we are ready to deliver a safe election here in Nova Scotia,” said Shelton. “We’ve done contingency planning to look at risks and mitigations for those risks, in case we faced an emergency situation like Newfoundland.”

Given the uptake in other provincial elections, Elections Nova Scotia is also preparing for a larger than normal number of mail-in ballots during this 41st general election.

In fact a winner may not be declared on election night.

Shelton says if ballot counting is predicted to go late into the night, Chief Electoral Officer Richard Temporaly is ready to pause counting at midnight to allow election workers time to rest before resuming the count the following day.

“That’s not been the case previously in Nova Scotia, although it’s not uncommon in other provinces for the vote count to go on for more than one night. But we want people to be aware that that is a possibility this time,” said Shelton. “We are doing everything we can to be efficient with our vote count and to mitigate those risks but we wanted to be up front to let people know that there is a possibility that that could happen. We won’t know until election night when we’re looking at the volume of votes.”

Advanced polls opened Wednesday despite the fact some ridings have yet to nominate all their candidates.

Shelton says that’s not uncommon and people wishing to vote early can simply vote for the party and the vote will count once their candidate is announced.

Potential candidates have until July 28 to submit their nomination papers.

Voters who are registered with Elections Nova Scotia can vote in person by bringing a photo ID along with the voter registration card, which should be mailed out the week of August 2.

A link explaining how to vote in the upcoming election is on our web page

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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