B.C. print shops are wrapping up municipal campaign orders just as the provincial snap election sends another wave of orders their way
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Municipal election signs are beginning to hit the lawns, but print shops are already bracing for another wave: Provincial campaign billboards, postcards and mailers are coming soon to a yard and mailbox near you.
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John Roden, general manager of three Minuteman Press stores in Surrey and North Vancouver, said his shops are just finishing up mailings, postcards and other campaign materials for the municipal election. With Premier David Eby calling a snap provincial election for Oct. 24, just a week after the municipal voting day, the stores are now gearing up for another rush.
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“This one is going to be interesting,” said Roden, whose stores have received orders for the North Vancouver federal byelection as well as municipal campaign materials in Surrey, Langley and the Fraser Valley in recent weeks, with mailing orders typically ranging from 20,000 to 30,000 pieces.
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Snap elections can turn a relatively predictable printing schedule into a scramble, he said, as candidates suddenly have to get their campaign materials designed, printed, and in the mail on a much-tighter timeline.
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Counting backwards from the deadlines, if a campaign wants its material in mailboxes by Oct. 19, for example, it would need to get the material to Canada Post at least four business days before that — leaving the printer roughly two to three weeks to receive the order, prepare the layout and artwork, produce and print it.
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“It’s not impossible,” Roden said. “The graphic designers are going to be busy in the next couple weeks.”
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At Better Print Victoria, Tyler McLoughlin said the timing of the provincial election works out for his shop. The big municipal-election rush cleared out Friday — with Saturday the earliest date campaign signs can be put on public property — leaving the shop back at full capacity just as news of the provincial election broke.
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Despite hearing murmurs of a possible snap election a while ago, McLoughlin said he has not received any pre-orders. On Tuesday, his shop was busy fulfilling catch-up orders for the municipal elections.
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“On Monday, and this happens every single year, the day everybody gets their signs up, they realize they don’t have enough, and we get a whole bunch of additional orders.”
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His shop churns out 1,000 to 2,000 signs per order for municipal races, but provincial and federal orders tend to be bigger. Orders come in from each candidates’ campaign team rather than from a centralized party order, he said.
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Orders range from smaller lawn signs to medium and large signs that are erected on wood frames, more similar in size to rezoning and development signs. The usual turnaround is three to five days, although the store can do it quicker for clients on tight deadlines.
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At TR Trades in Vancouver, owner Carla Duncan dropped off a large delivery for Delta municipal candidates last week and wrapped up orders in Vancouver and other smaller Vancouver Island communities.
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The provincial election would offer another bump for the family-owned Kitsilano business, which Duncan said for the first time lost out on jobs to print shops in Ontario.
