Angela Caputo says she got herself elected as Ward 3 councillor without paying a king's ransom for lawn signs.
This week, Caputo voted in favour of banning municipal, provincial and federal campaign signs on public property within the city.
But the vote was a squeaker, and council members rejected the idea six to five.
"I'm sitting here today as the Ward 3 councillor and I ran my campaign with no signs," Caputo said.
"I topped some pretty wonderful competitors, who had a lot of signs ... while I respect the idea that we don't want to limit someone's expression, myself as a single mom, I didn't have $3,000 or $4,000 to spend on election signs.
"That is a huge barrier for a lot of candidates. And I think we could see a lot of candidates coming from a lot of different places who didn't have the money to afford these signs."
Caputo argued that campaign signs are bad for the environment.
"The signs are made of corrugated plastic. They are finished with a thin sheet of some type of plastic that takes, from what I read, up to 400 years to actually disintegrate," Caputo said.
"So those signs sit in the landfill and emit greenhouse gas. And you might use them once, you might use them twice, but eventually they're going to end up in the landfill.
"I have gotten a lot of complaints, especially in the provincial election, where we were seeing a lot of signs going into snow banks.
"It was impairing people's vision to get around the corners in a winter where we were already experiencing very limited vision.
"I continually get calls about them flying into the streets not being properly cared for. I know that the candidates try their best to weigh them down even when they're not in the snow, but you see them flying around.
"People don't want to see the election signs the way that they have, especially not in the last provincial election."
Mayor Matthew Shoemaker saw the issue differently.
"I don't agree that this is a problem that needs resolving," he said.
"I think it's up to voters to decide whether or not sign clutter becomes an issue, and that's for them to pass judgment on with their vote," he added.
To Coun. Caputo, the mayor said: "I applaud you to for getting elected without signs, but it's not the path that most people take to get their name known.
"One of the methods most of us used . . . is signage. And it is really up to the voter to decide whether or not that signage is used responsibly or irresponsibly.
"The fact that these signs had to be moved, frankly, is so infrequent an occurrence that I don't think it warrants regulating.
"We had a winter election in 2025 provincially. The last one before that was in 1981. So this is not something that happens all that often.
"In the summer, it's much easier to manage, and they're not interfering, generally speaking, with major public works operations like bank removal. So I don't agree that this is a problem that needs resolving. I think it's up to voters to decide whether or not sign clutter becomes an issue, and that's for them to pass judgment on with their vote.
"In any event, I think that the use of signs is not something that we ought to be policing ... We frankly don't have the resources to police this effectively. If someone was intent on simply placing signs on public property, even with a restriction, they would be picked up by public works and moved to the yard anyway.
"So it would be essentially the same thing," Shoemaker added.
"I mean, they would be technically breaking the law, but I just don't think that our bylaw enforcement officers and public works should be spending their time chasing down candidates, bringing things to the yard.
"Allow them on public space and let the voters decide whether it's appropriate or not."
Voting in favour of restrictions on election signs were Couns. Caputo, Sonny Spina, Lisa Vezeau-Allen, Matthew Scott and Luke Dufour.
Voting against the idea were Mayor Shoemaker and Couns. Stephan Kinach, Sandra Hollingsworth, Marchy Bruni, Ron Zagordo and Corey Gardi.