Signs of the times in the east end (4 photos)

A retired Conservative Party supporter — who describes himself as “just a little right of Attila the Hun” — has decorated his lawn with election signs going back some 40 years.

“I sit here in the evening and wait for the paperboy to come, I have a beer sometimes and my wife has a glass of wine. We have a really nice back deck but I like to sit out front and watch the kids come home from school. It’s pleasant. Then I watch the people looking at the signs. I don’t know what their sympathies are and I don’t really care, but I always get a chuckle and give them a wave,” said Bill Gowans from his east-end residence.

Recently he asked his son to help clean out the shed in the backyard and upon finding the signs decided to add them to stand alongside the Bryan Hayes one his front yard. 

Gowans said he wasn’t intentionally collecting the signs, they just accumulated over the years. 

“I would take the signs and throw them in the shed the next day after the election. I think people are a little more careful now getting rid of signs but back then they didn’t worry too much about it,” said Gowans.

“You stuck it on your lawn and — god bless you — you can get rid of it or maybe we’ll come along and get them. That’s the way it was,” he added.

The signs are from both provincial and federal elections and date as far back as 1971. “I had to repair some of them, obviously,” he said.

Gowans was involved in many local campaigns at an organizational level for local, provincial and federal elections, but hasn’t been active for many years.

“We used to knock on every door in the city, you don’t see that anymore,” said Gowans.

He always votes, even though he admits — like every party — the Conservatives haven’t always run what he considered to be a good candidate.

“I suppose like a lot of old line Tories I vote and I bite my tongue. I will not vote strategically,” said Gowans.

“I voted for guys… honest to god…” he said, chuckling while shaking his head.

Gowans admits he has been impressed with candidates for other parties, even if he would never vote for them.

“I like our Liberal guy Orazietti as a person. I think he’s a nice guy and I think he does a good job for this city.”

Gowans took a breath before continuing, “But anybody in Ontario that votes Liberal with that outfit they got going — I can’t even discuss how bad that government is in Toronto — you either have to be a relative, on the take or an idiot.”

Gowans said he is not sure if Elections Canada would have a problem if they knew he was displaying almost 45-year-old election signs.

“I haven’t the slightest idea, and guess what?”

SooToday offered a guess as to what Gowans thought. Although correct, we will not publish the entire answer as it included a choice swear word.

But it began, “you don’t give a —?“

“I’m just having a bit of fun. I’m not hurting anybody, I’m not insulting anybody. I’m not trying to. To tell you the truth I took them out of the shed, they have been in the shed too long. It was time to get rid of them anyway,” he said.

Gowans could even leave the signs up after the October 19 election as a Halloween decoration.

“It looks like a graveyard, because as far as I know only one of those guys is still alive,” he said.

(PHOTO: Signs from past elections seen yesterday on the front lawn of Bill Gowans' east-end home. Kenneth Armstrong/SooToday)