An Edmonton man is not campaigning for sales or votes. He just wanted a sign.
"I thought to myself, 'Well, that's pretty funny and people might like that,'" Stan Gallant recalled to CTV News Edmonton in an interview on Thursday.
"This is our second campaign in a while now, but I've always thought that politics shouldn't be taken too serious."
Gallant's blue, red and white sign—sticking out of the lawn at his St. Albert home—features his name in italicized capitals and the message: "Not running for anything. Just wanted a sign."
He said it was neither a political message nor a show of support for any party.
"It was just more or less to lighten the mood."
Gallant concedes the joke was inspired by Regent Signs, the company he—a real estate agent—uses to print advertisements. The company had a similar one in their window.
After working in the industry for 25 years, Gallant said he has come to hate elections for they distract from business.
"As I drive around every day, you tend to look and see signs everywhere and in a lot of cases you don't know if they're for sale signs or election signs or don’t really even care because there are so many signs out," he said.
"There will be so many that you'll be sick of looking at—you'll be dreaming of them at night, you'll have nightmares when you try to go to bed at night."
Gallant has printed four signs—so far. Requests from others for similar signs may mean he makes more.
He added, "I'm trying to turn it into a bit of fun and have a laugh because I'm tired of stressing out about governments.
"Might as well laugh at it."
