Many of the volunteers on this year’s sign crew have been working on getting signs nailed onto wooden posts for the last month. (Lauryn Mackenzie/ CHLY 101.7FM)

Editor’s note: Full interviews with the sign crew in audio version.

Early Thursday morning, John Little offered volunteers some wisdom gained over 40 plus years of campaigning.

“So basically, wind is our enemy, and drunks because they tear our signs down,” Little said.

Wednesday night a Harewood backyard had been brimming with close to 1,000 election signs. Thursday morning, it was up to Little to get those signs where people could see them.

Little is in charge of the street signage for 20 different candidates in this fall’s local election and has planned the locations for close to 1,000 signs.

Volunteers were up early Thursday morning getting signs organized. (Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7FM)

He has been part of sign crews since 1984 after meeting former NDP MLA Jan Pillinger and helping with her campaign.

“I've worked with multiple candidates, multiple jurisdictions, and I coordinate with people around me. I know the sign people that are in Parksville. I know the sign people in Ladysmith, and Cobble Hill,” he said. “Last year, we were short wires, and we had too much lumber. A friend of mine, Tom Harkins in Duncan, says, ‘John, have you got any wires?’ I said, "Yeah, we got hundreds of wires. Can you trade us some lumber?’”

Little said he has lost count of how many elections he has done sign work for. Since his start in 1984, he said he has done every single local, provincial and federal election in Nanaimo. He has even done some sign crew work for candidates in other provinces.

“As you can see, I just asked people to come out, and today we had 14 people come out,” he said. “It's amazing. If you ask people to help, they will help.”

While Little has been paid to work on campaigns at the provincial and federal levels, he leads the sign crews on a volunteer basis for local elections.

“We're all volunteers here. It's fun, and this is what democracy is all about, right?” Little said.

Little (pictured) said he has lost count of how many elections he has done sign work for. (Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7FM)

He said he enjoys bringing people from across the whole political spectrum together to work on a shared goal.

He said the 20 candidates he’s helping put up signs for are people he’s either worked with before or people who have asked if their signs can be included this year. They range from a mayoral candidate, to those looking for a seat on Nanaimo city council, to candidates for school board trustee.

Many of the volunteers on this year’s sign crew have been working on getting signs nailed onto wooden posts for the last month.

Some of the candidates themselves were part of the sign crew Thursday morning, Nanaimo city council candidates Andréa Coutu and Steven Johns were observed helping put up signs for the various candidates.

While Little doesn’t get paid for the work, he does say each candidate he places signs for will pay him back for the wire and wooden stakes needed for each sign.

“It's expensive, eh? Each one of those signs on lumber, these ones here–12 footer, is $5.50, right? You need three for each sign,” he said. “So if you got 20 signs, you're looking at lots and lots [of money].”

Richard Bruce has been a long time sign crew volunteer and this year offered up his house in the Harewood neighbourhood for candidates and volunteers to store their signs and lumber.

Some of the candidates themselves were part of the sign crew Thursday morning. (Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7FM)

“It's difficult to find space to do things like this unless you are in a rural area like where we usually store signs,” Bruce said. “It's a real neighbourly sort of thing, and your sense of community when everybody gets together like this. It's been fun for me; it's been a bit of a trial for my [wife], but so far so good.”

He has been doing sign crew work for provincial and federal elections for the last 20 years, and this will be his second local election helping an assortment of candidates get their signs up.

“I like the sense of involvement. I follow politics quite closely, it's one of my worst addictions. I try to keep them to myself,” Bruce said. “I've had a lifelong interest in politics and whatnot, and it's fun to contribute, instead of just standing back and observing.”

He said now that signs can go up around the city, he and his wife are excited to have their yard back.

“It's more how my wife likes getting it back,” Bruce said. “She had no idea that it would be expanding for more than one candidate, and she's a bit overwhelmed, but far so good.”

Sharleen Weatherley has been living in Nanaimo for two years now. She decided to join the sign crew after meeting Little at an event of the local NDP riding association.

Groups of volunteers were sent off to different areas of the city with vehicles full of signs. (Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7FM)

“I wanted to support local politics and get involved,” Weatherley said.

She has been helping for the last few weeks to get the signs ready.

“We had to put together the wire signs with the plastic, and then most of the frames weren't made because they changed the size of the signs that were allowed,” she said. “So we basically had to saw and drill and put them all together.”

One of the reasons she wanted to get involved was to meet and chat with any candidates who may also be volunteering with the sign crew.

“I'm really passionate about forms of transit around town that are not cars. So like public transit, buses, streetcars, bikes, and walking paths,” Weatherley said. “I was hoping that if I could get out, I would help people, and I could talk to people and politicians running about that and encourage them to increase that in Nanaimo.”

Weatherley said she has since been able to speak with several candidates.

This was her first time being a part of a sign crew, but Weatherly said it probably won’t be her last.

Little said this intersection is one of the two best spots for signs. (Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7FM)

“I think it was really good to help out for everyone; it would have been hard for everyone to do their own individual signs,” Weatherley said. “So I think it was a good service that John and the team provided.”

Throughout the morning, Little gave out maps to groups of volunteers. Each map highlighted areas identified as the best spots for signs. The various groups were sent off to different areas of the city with vehicles full of signs.

CHLY joined Little and Weatherley as they put up signs along the fence at the intersection of Bowen Road and Wakesiah Avenue.

Little said this intersection is one of the two best spots for signs. By 11 a.m. on Thursday, only one other candidate had placed signs there before Little’s group arrived.

He said the other best spot is Maffeo Sutton Park along the Trans-Canada Highway. Little explained that because that spot is along a provincial highway, they won’t be able to place signs there until Saturday.

“The highway has different rules. You can't put up signs until Saturday,” Little said. “The [Provincial] Elections Act says an election period is 28 days. The city bylaw says 30 days.”

He said a big part of placing these signs is name recognition for the candidates.

Little said once the signs are placed, he is still responsible for them on behalf of the candidates until they have to come down after Election Day. (Lauryn Mackenzie / CHLY 101.7FM)

“These people are flying by here, right? They're not going to see anything or read anything, but if they see Krog like that or they see Andrea like that, they're going to remember that,” Little said. “When they get into a ballot box, ‘well, I've got two spots left, who do I vote for? Well, I heard that Andrea is a good person,’ but all they've seen is a sign.”

He said once the signs are placed, he is still responsible for them on behalf of the candidates until they have to come down after Election Day.

Little said keeping up with vandalism is the hardest part of the job.

“Richard, you met today, he's got magical solutions; WD-40 and [Goo Gone] and if it's defaced with a black felt marker, sometimes we can get it off, sometimes we can't,” he said. “Once they're ruined, they're garbage.”

He said he expects about 20 per cent of all the signs will be lost or damaged over the next month.

According to the City's Political Signage Regulation Bylaw, all election signs must be removed by the next business day following General Voting Day. Something Little says his team is ready for.

Election Day is October 17th, with advance voting happening on October 7 and 14th.

Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada.

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