KENORA – Sarah Campbell, the NDP candidate in Kenora Rainy River is going green. Campbell is re-cycling almost twenty years of NDP election campaign signs for her first campaign as she attempts to win a seat at Queen’s Park.
“It’s a practice that is as old as hammering a lawn sign into the ground; a new candidate comes into the fold and the local riding association orders a new batch of signs,” shares Campbell. It’s also a practice that is changing, thanks to an inventive partnership between the Campbell campaign and Mac Print in conjunction with Link Signs in Dryden.
Thanks to a bit of ingenuity by MacPrint owner Graham Mackenzie, Campbell’s campaign is recycling the party’s old lawn signs to limit its footprint on the environment. “You really have to credit Graham with the idea,” says Campbell. “We were talking and I mentioned that it was really a shame we couldn’t use the old signs”.
Mackenzie came back with the plan to resurface the old Howard Hampton signs, some dating back nearly 20 years, with a vinyl covering, turning them into brand new Sarah Campbell signs. “We’re minimizing the impact of the environment and we’re shopping locally. It’s a win-win for everyone,” Campbell asserts.
Shopping local has been a key component of Campbell’s campaign, as her team has pledged to ensure that any money that can be spent locally will be spent locally. That means all flyers, magnets, bumper stickers and even campaign buttons have been purchased locally, to ensure that the communities within the Kenora-Rainy River benefit from the campaign.
“The Ontario NDP has a buy-Ontario policy, but we really wanted to strive to go one step further, with a buy local policy,” Campbell explains. “It helps reduce our environmental footprint again, by limiting the shipping that needs to be done. Fortunately we’ve got a great partner in MacPrint who have been able to make all of our ideas become reality.”