Kelowna council candidate busted for illegal campaign signs

Elaine McMurray, who ran for Kelowna city council in the Oct. 15 municipal election, has been fined by Elections B.C. for errors she made on her campaign signs.

The fine was only $100 but it could have been as high as $5,000.

On Sept. 12, Elections B.C. received a complaint about McMurray’s signs and, upon investigating, found they did not include the required information about her financial agent.

The Elections B.C. compliance team notified her of the error and McMurray quickly bought 300 stickers to place on her 150 double-sided signs.

The signs cost $3,312.05 and the stickers an extra $339.40.

“The nature of this contravention was not egregious – the lack of an authorization statement would not likely have misled a reader to conclude another party besides your campaign sponsored the ads,” a report on the Elections B.C. Administrative Monetary Penalties webpage says in explaining the amount of the fine issued. “The transparency purpose of the act had been substantially met.”

McMurray was also granted leniency because she responded immediately after being contacted by Elections B.C., this was her first campaign for public office and the error was inadvertent.

She finished 15th out of 32 candidates who ran for eight city council positions.

McMurray was one of a handful of candidates who were fined along with a number of political parties.

The financial agent for the B.C. Liberal Party was handed three fines totalling $900, the Green Party got one fine of $1,000 and the NDP was fined for four offences totalling $4,000.

The full details of the fines can be found here.

READ MORE: 'No quick fix' says new Kelowna Mayor Tom Dyas

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