Signs

Your municipality may have rules about when you can put up campaign signs and how signs may be displayed on public property.

All of your campaign signs and other advertising must identify that you are responsible for the sign. This is so that people seeing the sign or advertisement can tell that it is from your campaign, rather than from a third party advertiser.

Please see Leftover campaign inventory if you plan to reuse signs from the last election.

You are responsible for ensuring that your campaign signs are removed after voting day. Your municipality may require a sign deposit or have penalties for failing to remove your signs. Contact your local clerk for more information.

You are entitled to have your nomination fee refunded if you file your campaign financial statement by the filing deadline. The clerk cannot make removing your signs a condition for receiving your refund.

Getting information out

It is up to you to provide voters with information about you as a candidate and about your campaign. The municipal clerk is not responsible for providing your contact information to voters.

All candidates’ debates

The Municipal Elections Act, 1996 does not require candidate debates to be held, and the municipal clerk is not responsible for organizing meetings or debates. Debates can be organized by community groups, media outlets, candidates or any other interested persons.

Joint campaigns / running on a slate

There is nothing in the Municipal Elections Act, 1996 that would prevent like-minded candidates from campaigning on the same platform or identifying themselves as a group or slate. However, each candidate must keep their campaign finances separate and any joint expenses (for example, signs with two candidates’ names on them) must be divided between the campaigns.

For information on campaign finance rules please see Campaign Finance.