Two Obama Billboards…in Canada?
March 20th, 2008, 9 Comments »
My Dad told me about this the other day, but I had to see it to believe it. There’s not one, but two billboards supporting Barack Obama on the Pat Bay Highway outside of Victoria. I snapped a photo of one as we passed by:
Bizarre, eh? Apparently this one went up earlier in the month:
The full-size billboard was paid for by Dean Park residents Reg and Karen Mooney with the dual purpose of provoking family debate and putting in a personal push to get troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Reg Mooney, 75, a management consultant and former president of Goodwill Bottling, is a supporter of Democratic candidate Barack Obama and recently attended one of his rallies in Las Vegas.
The second one, which also has a message for Prime Minister Harper, just went up the other day. Apparently it costs about CAN $1250 a month to run a billboard along this stretch of highway (it’s reserve land, and the billboards generate revenue for the local band).
The first billboard’s owner has strong ties to the States, but this has reasonably practical applications as well. Victoria has millions of visitors each year (I couldn’t find a reliable number, but when I worked there it had the busiest info centre in the country), and many of them are Americans. Of course, only a minority of them are entering the city via this highway, but it might be enough to justify this surprisingly low cost.