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North Okanagan-Shuswap candidates to practise three R’s with campaign signs

One candidate to have signs recycled to make sleeping mats for people in need
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North Okanagan – Shuswap candidates announce their plans to reuse or recycle their campaign signs following the election. (File graphic)

Regardless of the outcome of the upcoming federal election, one North Okanagan-Shuswap candidate will not be reusing her campaign signs as such.

In a Sept. 28 Twitter post, Liberal candidate Cindy Derkaz explains how after the election, her signs will be picked up and then donated to Bags to Bedzzz, a B.C. organization that makes plastic sleeping mats for people in need.

Upon learning this, the Observer checked with other candidates to find out what they plan to do with their signs after the election.

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Marc Reinarz for the Green Party said he admires Derkaz’s idea and applauds her for it. However, he plans to run again and will reuse his signs.

“I opted for a CorePlex material that can be cleaned and reused indefinitely until the UV gets the better of it,” Reinarz said. “Should I not run again, I positioned my name in a square which can easily be pasted over with the name of another candidate.”

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For the NDP, candidate Harwinder Sandhu said her campaign has reused the wires in the plastic signs for years and will continue to do so. What happens with this year’s signs depends on the results of the election.

“If it goes well, then we will have a little ‘re-elect’ sticker on there for the next term,” Sandhu said. “If we decide that we’re not going to use them, then we will definitely be recycling them.”

Sandhu says she also has 12 wood signs that can be reused.

Kyle Delfing for the People’s Party of Canada said that his campaign will be following the three R’s: reduce, reuse and recycle.

“Whether I win or lose, I think I’ll be keeping my signs because I don’t think there’s going to be a long time before there’s another election…,” Delfing said. “I’ll be pursuing another candidacy here; this one has been a short run.”

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Linda Hawes, campaign manager for the Conservative Party of Canada, said Mel Arnold’s signs have also been reused from previous years.

“The frames, the wood and the screws, are 100 per cent reused from 2015. We didn’t buy anything new except stickers that said re-elect,” Hawes said.


@CameronJHT
Cameron.thomson@saobserver.net

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