We when launched our election sign project last weekend, we did so with the potentially imminent federal election in mind. But it turns out there’s already an election underway. Over the past couple of weeks, signs promoting the candidates for next month’s school board election have appeared around town.
It’s hard enough getting people to vote for their own mayor and city councillors; getting them to vote for school commissioner must be unimaginably difficult. It’s understandable why public interest might be low — I don’t have any kids, so I really have no interest in school board politics — but Montreal’s school boards have been making an extra effort this year to get out the vote. So far, it seems to be working, since only two of the English Montreal School Board’s 23 commissioners have been acclaimed this year, compared with 14 last year.
But that’s a bit beside the point. I’m simply intrigued by these school commissioner election posters. So far, I’ve seen signs for four different candidates. On Darlington Street, in Côte des Neiges, I spotted a number of small signs for Khokon Maniruzzaman, who is running for the Commission scolaire de Montréal. They’re bright, colourful and unobtrusive, with a standardized party design.
More interesting are the English school board signs I’ve spotted downtown, in Mile End, Little Italy and Villeray. To some extent, they’re all bilingual or multilingual. Agostino Cannavino’s signs in Villeray proclaim himself to be “at the service of all our children” while urging voters to “Vote – Votez – Votate.” Julien Feldman’s signs go one step further, asking voters to “Vote Votez Votate ψήφος,” nodding at once to voters who speak English, French, Italian and Greek.
Multilingual election signs were common in the past — a future post will deal with Yiddish election signs from the 1940s — but are rare nowadays, despite the fact that Montreal is more multilingual than ever. In Toronto and Vancouver, it’s not uncommon to find election signs in Chinese and other non-official languages, but in Montreal, language is such a fractious and emotional issue that most politicians would probably prefer to avoid any sort of fracas that might deprive them of votes.
5 comments
The picture of Julien Feldman looks like a mug shot. Also, is his slogan supposed to be “For the students. For a change.” or “For the students, for a change”? Is the double meaning, with its passive-aggressive overtones, intentional?
Besides the Memo (whose design is superb), there was this other school board “party” with another really interesting acronym. Would you know what I am talking about?
Mark, I like to think that the passive aggressiveness was entirely intentional.
Cedric, I have no idea. But the Memo posters really put the EMSB ones to shame, design-wise. (Kitsch-wise, not so much.)
Wouldn’t it be best for Quebec to do what Ontario does – holding school board elections at the same time as municipal elections. This would greatly increase voter turnout.
I live in Mile End and am definitely voting for Feldman. He’ll shake up the old boys’ network that dominates the English school board and will ensure parents’ voices aren’t trampled by school-board bureaucrats. His multilingual signs are a reflection of his policy: more French-language and heritage-language education in the English school system, so our kids graduate with the tools to make their way in Quebec, and in the world economy.