Lawn signs, local forums — how candidates communicate with voters
Even in the digital age, old-fashioned signage is surprisingly effective
The federal election campaign is past the halfway point, with election day less than two weeks away. But while many voters will watch the party leaders' debates tonight and tomorrow, they will ultimately cast a ballot for a local candidate.
While campaign lawn signs featuring candidates' names are in full bloom, local debates are few and far between this election. Are these long-standing practices still relevant in the social media age?
"I'm a firm believer that election signs are doing a public service," said Alex Marland, a political scientist and professor at Acadia University in Nova Scotia.
"When it comes to debates, that's a totally other affair."
Fewer debates a common trend
Only a few Edmonton-area ridings have debates or multi-candidate forums scheduled.
My Radio 580 held a Punjabi-language radio debate on April 11, featuring three candidates from Edmonton Southeast — Conservative Jagsharan Singh Mahal, NDP candidate Harpreet Grewal and Liberal candidate (and current Edmonton mayor) Amarjeet Sohi.
In St. Albert-Sturgeon River, all five candidates in that riding participated in an election forum on April 2.
In the riding of Edmonton Centre, a debate organized by the Wîhkwêntôwin Community League is taking place Wednesday. All 10 candidates running in the riding were invited, and nine have confirmed attendance, with the exception of Conservative candidate Sayid Ahmed.
Colten Bishop, the events manager for the community league, said the campaign told organizers that it was committed to door knocking and unable to attend.
"And we respect their decision," he said.
Based on the RSVPs for the free event, Bishop said they're expecting close to a capacity crowd of 200.
That enthusiasm was also apparent in the responses from the campaigns that confirmed.
"They were very quick to respond," said Bishop. "We've even had candidates that have had to shift their schedules around quite significantly so they could be a part of this."
The diminishing importance of local debates of forums is a trend playing out beyond Alberta, according to Marland.
Debates are "adversarial by nature," and candidates might be wary of getting ganged up on — particularly incumbents.
"And in an age of social media and people having smartphones, the risk is very high of them saying something or a controversy emerging that is going to damage their prospects," said Marland.
By contrast, he said the leaders' debates are a "focusing event — they are the time when most people start really paying attention to the campaign."
A 'low cost' form of communication
Election signs, however, are still a useful tool. At a minimum, they make sure that even people who might not follow the news are aware an election is taking place.
John Pracejus, a marketing professor at the University of Alberta, said campaign signs can help increase awareness of a local candidate's name. They can also have a "bandwagon" effect — making it seem like a candidate is so popular, they must be worth considering voting for.
Partisan signs can be a target of theft or vandalism during election campaigns. Nevertheless, Pracejus said they offer considerable value for money in terms of messaging.
Outdoor signs "are actually a relatively low cost way of communicating simple messages, and I don't think that's changed," he said.
"I think the impact of digital outlets and the digital platforms like Meta and Google have really largely been on radio, television, newspapers, magazines, things like that that really don't have a very big chunk of consumer attention anymore."
Not only do physical signs avoid any algorithmic manipulation by social media platforms, they also cut through individualized silos of media consumption — one of the few mediums that can still do so in the digital age, noted Pracejus.
Those polarized echo chambers are also Marland believes voters are not well served by adversarial local debates.
"What should be happening at the local level is people should be talking about town halls, they should be talking about meet-the-candidate events — things not involving aggression [or] polarization, but instead, encourage meeting people and having good conversations."