Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign...

To start with, I am not accusing anyone of anything. I am merely reporting the facts, which are once again, a bit fucking weird.

Let's move forward to the 2018 election. Initially, I wasn't planning on running, but when no one else stepped up to challenge the incumbents in Ward 5, I had to do it. No one gets acclaimed if I have anything to say about it.

For the 2014 election campaign, I bought 100 campaign signs. Certainly not a large number, but it was what I could afford at the time. By the time the election was over, I was down to about 50, I believe, with the other 50 stolen, removed, or simply damaged beyond the point of usefulness. When election season came around in 2018, I had just gone back to university, so I had absolutely no money and bought zero new signs. Which meant using the old ones as efficiently as possible.

Between the 2014 and 2018 elections, the Guelph City Council passed a sign bylaw (which contained an error that I had to point out to them) that significantly limited where and how election signs could be placed on public property. This meant two things: 1) There was a technical limit to the number of signs a candidate could put out; and 2) It was really hard to find good spots to put them in some areas. But I am a master of  both rules-lawyering and efficiency, so I pulled out a map and found the absolute best locations to (legally) place signs in Ward 5.

Almost immediately after I stuck them in the ground, they started to disappear. Unlike the previous election, however, when my signs disappeared, new ones would appear right in their place. And I'd say a good 80% of the time, those signs belonged to Leanne Piper, as she was known then. This happened frequently enough that a voter emailed me about it. I replaced the ones that I could, but in short order, I simply ran out. When I collected them the night after the election, I was down to 30.

Again, I am not accusing anyone of anything. It could be a complete coincidence. I have no evidence whatsoever that Leanne (Piper) Caron or anyone associated with her campaign was messing with my signs during the 2018 election. The 2022 election, on the other hand...

She's Always Been a Bit Weird Towards Me

Since Leanne Caron is tossing her hat into the ring once more (and this time for *Mayor* no less), and at this point I don't intend to do the same, I've decided to get some things out there to better inform the electorate. When I was younger, I was content to let it all slide, but I've become old and grizzled, and I don't intend to play as nice as I once did.

Now, Leanne has always acted very oddly towards me. I don't know if this is just how she is, or if she has something against me personally. To be fair to her, despite the fact that I've lived in her constituency for quite some time, we've only ever seen each other during election seasons, when I was running against her. Since I rent my home, rather than owning it, I'm not part of the population of Ward 5 that she seems to actually care about. But, I digress.

In 2014, the first time I ran for city council, I was getting questions from voters about my credentials: they wanted to know what sort of education I had. So, when anyone asked, I'd tell them that I have a bachelor's degree in mathematics. Which I do. On other occasions, I'd talk about my personal history, how I grew up in Puslinch, and went to school here, that sort of thing.

We were at some event, and Leanne came up to me and said something along the lines of "You've been saying you have a math degree, right? I asked around the math department at UofG, and no one there can remember you. It's not a very big department, so if you were there..." At which point I cut her off and pointed out that my degree was from UofT, and I went to high school in Guelph.

Whether she actually asked around the math department about me, I don't know, and I'm willing to bet she doesn't remember, because for her it was Tuesday. It stuck with me, though, because it seemed really fucking weird. But, I'm just a regular guy, not a seasoned politician like Leanne, so what do I know? Maybe Guelph wants a Mayor that'll waste time digging around to try to "Gotcha!" someone when she has a question, rather than asking them directly. We'll find out soon enough.

But is that all I have? Just one little thing? No. No it is not.