One of… err, two of many sticker warnings
Vic Toews is watching.
Only, he probably couldn’t tell you who has busied themselves attaching handmade stickers to all sorts of public property in and around Exhibition Park.
It’s something I noticed earlier this summer on a lid of a City garbage can and thought, “Ah, OK, full marks for creativity but that’s kinda out there” and resolved to not blog about it. I subsequently came across this post by Adam Donaldson on his blog, Guelph Politico. I’ve noticed the sticker warnings here and there as well though I can’t quite recall exactly where now. Saturday morning I noticed one on the back of a seat in a Guelph Transit bus stopped next to me at a stop light.
Owing to the number of sticker warnings that are out there, Vic Toews must be watching a lot. Especially the Spurline Trail. I could go around and count them towards making my point, but then again who has time for that. Suffice to say, it seems we are into next wave from when I first took notice of them.
As a bit of advice to those hard-working people (I hope someone isn’t doing all that work themselves!) with their stickers and coloured Sharpie marker collection — what you’re doing is not going to win anyone over. It’s as if you’re trying to, well, bully people into buying into your message.
– Just need to plaster the place with ”warning stickers” and we’ll all conform our thinking to what you’re presenting?
– Or are you trying to make people of a particular political bent feel unwelcome in our community?
Regardless, notwithstanding your views of Mr. Toews, with the amount of time you’ve spent handwriting the man’s name, it is becoming a matter of Creepy, meet Creepy. As far as tactics go, it’s just going to make people feel unsafe about… you. Minimally, you are going to lose support for how you’re making our public areas look. Something to consider.
Something else to consider is the license you have given yourself to do all of that. No doubt you can rationalize it — which of course is not a skill only enjoyed by Vic.
But this post isn’t entirely about the stickers. More about that next post. (Huh?)
***
I am looking into making sure you can get your very own turningthecurve handmade sticker. It’ll probably cost you an arm and a leg and it won’t be as creative as the Vic Toews Is Watching stickers, in fact it’ll likely be pretty crappy. I’m not sure what it will say either. No assurances regarding spelling, colour-fastness or flame-resistance.
And it won’t likely draw an endorsement from Terry Bradshaw, or any Bradshaw for that matter.
But it will be authentic, which is actually something. And you’ll be proud to display it in some drawer. But if you like it, go for it. Peel off the backing and participate in that age-old revolution-by-sticker tradition.
Just be sure to stick it to your own property.
