Running in the municipal election?
How would you like to use a photograph of a vibrant octogenarian with a — shall we say — unconventional fashion sense and an authoritative manner, on your campaign brochure?
Could appeal to the mature voter. True, you might have to use a step stool for the photo shoot and there could be a lot of reflection off the shiny necklace she likes to wear around her neck but I can assure you, the response would be worth it.
For someone who is not running a campaign, Mayor Hazel (Please Redirect Your Campaign Donations to Charity) McCallion makes an inordinate number of appearances on campaign brochures and web sites for various candidates in the current campaign.
When one is the human vortex of Mississauga politics, this unsolicited attention is not unexpected.
The public or private disapproval of the former Queen of Sprawl (Thank you Ann Mulvale and Susan Fennell) is perceived as critical to one’s electoral success, so it is not surprising that the mayor’s favour is curried at every opportunity.
As everyone knows, McCallion has un-elected more than one councillor with the monumental power of her disapproval. The power of her implied approval is considered just as powerful, obviously, because all kinds of candidates over the years have included her pictures in their materials in the vain hope that voters might believe they are the Chosen One.
Back in June, the mayor sent a letter to The News noting that the unauthorized use of her photo had already begun in the current campaign. “The use of my photo requires my authorized permission,” she said. Good luck enforcing that.
“I do not endorse the use of my photo in election campaign material produced by candidates and the use of my photograph should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any candidate.”
The photo issue came to a head in the last campaign when Ward 3 council candidate Peter Ferreira used a photo of Hazel, taken at the opening of the Streetsville library when he was chair of the library board, on the front of a brochure that included the slogan, “Supporting Visionaries That Embrace Change.” Oops.
An angry McCallion claimed the photo was doctored. (Ferreira insists it wasn’t and says he has the negatives to prove it.)
Speaking of negatives, the mayor issued a statement complaining that a candidate had used a photo without her permission which incumbent councillor Maja Prentice used in an ad in The News shortly before election day.
Ferreira is still smarting over the incident. The mayor is a public figure and if he is involved with her in a public function where photos are taken, he does not need her permission to use the photo, he maintains.
“Nowhere did it say she endorses me,” said Ferreira. Not explicitly, no, but it clearly implied so.
A not-so-sorry but wiser Ferreira has no pictures of the mayor on his flyer this time around, although there is a photo on his web site of the pair of them smiling together at St. Francis Xavier high school.
Prentice has two photos that include McCallion on her brochure, both at community events in the ward, which is perfectly kosher. She got the mayor’s permission for those. Which is interesting in light of the mayor’s earlier statement that, “I do not endorse the use of my photo in election campaign material produced by candidates.”
Ferreira says he has no problems with the mayor and realizes that she, “has a thing about protecting any member of her team” from being knocked off council.
He still thinks that Photogate ’03 involved, “making a mountain out of a molehill.”
Where photos of Mt. McCallion and the enormous shadow she casts are concerned, there are no such things as molehills.
Comments