Candidate advertising during municipal election campaigns will be up for discussion at Tuesday’s meeting of Belleville City Council.
Council will see a staff report recommending the city’s election advertising by-law be amended so as to not specify any maximum size for candidate’s campaign signs.
The issue came up during the 2018 campaign when current Mayor Mitch Panciuk advertised on large billboards.
Belleville’s current by-law sets the maximum size for an election sign at 32 square feet, much smaller than a billboard.
Staff believes that due to a 2009 Supreme Court ruling allowing political and third-party advertising on buses, the city’s limits on sign size wouldn’t hold up to a “freedom of speech” challenge in court.
