CSI Cooksville

The gloves are off in Ward 7 and the bare knuckles are starting to draw a little blood.
The rancour of last week’s all-candidates’ session seems to have ratcheted up the ill will between incumbent Councillor Nando Iannicca and his chief opponent, Beju Lakhani, who has been running hard — with a lot of assistance from former Ward 4 Councillor and long-time NDP stalwart Larry Taylor — since June.
Lakhani’s ire was raised when Iannicca handed out material last week which he says proves that the councillor has been using City staff and resources to fight his campaign.
In response to factually inaccurate statements from his opponents about councillor’s salaries, the ownership of municipal community centres and the size of tax increases, Iannicca wrote to City staff to ask for the facts. He took those memos, which are on City letterhead, photocopied them, then stapled a campaign piece to them and handed them out last week at the ratepayers’ meeting.
“He’s taken something that was produced through City resources and attached his flyer to the front,” complained Lakhani, who works as fundraising director for Foodpath. “He should have gone and done his own research. I just want a level playing field,” the challenger said.
“Absolute nonsense,” replies Iannicca. “Staff were correcting his errors and others’ errors. This is Nando following the letter of the law. I have a right to ask for the correct information as an elected official. I photocopied and disseminated the material at my own expense. I know what bothers Mr. Lakhani and that is the truth.”
One can only imagine how much staff looks forward to “clarifying” these issues for the public and/or writing addendums for campaign brochures.
Be that as it may, the stakes were upped (pun intended) over the weekend when campaign signs for Lakhani and Wards 1 and 7 public school board candidate Jeffrey Hui started popping on prime pieces of retail and commercial real estate in Ward 7 that Iannicca has “exclusive” permission from owners to use: many of them prominent developers and landowners he’s dealt with over the years.
Savvy campaigners, of course, stick their election signs on private property, such as plazas and condos, where they know that the City will not remove them. They know there may be confusion about the rules, and that people may assume that the owner has actually given permission for them. By the time the details have been checked, the election is often over.
Iannicca’s campaign manager fired off an email to Lakhani’s, saying that the Iannicca team has been given permission to remove the signs by the owners, but they wanted to give Lakhani team the courtesy (as if there’s much of that left in this campaign) of removing the signs themselves.
We will remove the signs where the property owner has advised us that they are not wanted, came Lakhani’s reply.
This is a negative billing option, says the incumbent, who plans to start removing signs forthwith.
Iannicca has verbal, not written permission to take down the signs, so it is not too surprising that his opponent isn’t just going to take his word for it.
Prodding and poking the good councillor seems to be a specialty of Lakhani and team. According to Iannicca, they plastered his condo with illegal signs earlier and knocked on his door and pretended not to know who he was.
Taylor asks sarcastically whether the incumbent has permission of all of the developers throughout the ward to post only his signs. “Sure, I’m going to believe an opposition candidate that he has that permission. We have put up signs where requested and if an owner says we’ve made a mistake, we’ll remove it. This is typical of the goon tactics that have been going on in Ward 7.”
With all of the forensic investigations likely to follow this campaign (Iannicca is suing candidate Shane McNeil) there may be a new TV franchise in this: CSI Cooksville.
There is one thing good about all this sign mess. We now know how to rid the Mississauga landscape of all those gaudy election signs as soon as possible after the election.
We just need to ask the candidates to keep doing what they’ve done throughout — being responsible for removing their opponents’ signs.

Comments

[Stephen Wahl]

No blood drawn

These guys haven’t drawn any blood in this so called political fight. They are just picking each others scabs and popping zits. It’s more disgusting than and definitely not as exciting as a street brawl.

I got to go now and scrape my shoes; there’s that mysterious smell again.

[Stephen Wahl]

Acrimonious Acronyms CSI

Campaign Sign Investigators

Crazy Stupid Idiotic

Cooksville Silly-buggers Institute

Cynical Sly Insidious

Can’t Stand It (anymore)

Could Say Interesting

Culpo Sordeo Irreverentia