The man who paid for a billboard urging Alberta leave Canada says the Town of Taber is ordering it be taken down.
Cory Morgan says the town sent a letter last week to the private owner of the billboard demanding it be removed by Saturday at the latest.
The electronic billboard, located on town land, shows the Alberta shield surrounded by the words: “Send Ottawa a message! Choose Alberta.”
Morgan says the town advised the billboard has garnered a number of complaints and violates land use rules because it has become a nuisance.
“It was going to be a quiet billboard in one spot, part of a bigger campaign,” Morgan said Tuesday. “It morphed into a whole pile of attention, which only brought in more supporters [and] more donations.
“Now I’m putting up more billboards, so it’s one of the better things to happen to us.”
Taber is a community of 10,000, located 195 kilometres southeast of Calgary.
The sign just off Highway 3 comes from Morgan and a third-party advertising organization named Pathway to Independence.
It’s tied to a referendum vote on Alberta’s place in Canada. On Oct. 19, Albertans will vote on whether they want to stay in Canada or start the process to hold a second, binding referendum on quitting the country.
Morgan said he chose Taber simply because there was a billboard space available in the right price range. The sign immediately stirred up controversy, with some threatening to boycott Taber’s signature corn crop.
Town officials have declined to speak publicly about the controversy.
On June 3, the city posted a statement on social media. It said it had nothing to do with the sign and that its message doesn’t represent or speak for the town or broader community.
That same day, in a letter obtained by The Canadian Press, town chief administrative officer Derrin Thibault sent a letter to the billboard operator demanding the sign come down in 10 days.
“The Town has received multiple concerns regarding political content currently being displayed on the digital sign,” Thibault wrote.
“The continued display of the subject advertisement constitutes a nuisance and is inconsistent with the permitted use of the licensed area.”
Morgan said he has told the owner to do what he feels is right.
“I did say to him I didn’t expect him to put his lease at risk or his company at risk over this.”
Morgan said if the Taber sign is taken down there are other billboards, on private land, where replacements will go up.
“I’m annoyed now so I’m not going to lay off on Taber until we resolve this.”
He said another billboard will be placed in Dunmore, east of Medicine Hat.
He said it’s a matter of principle, because a third-party political advertiser is having their voice shut down by government.
Alberta’s separation debate is expected to last through the summer. Premier Danielle Smith has been criticized for holding the vote at all. But she says she was obligated to hold it because hundreds of thousands of Albertans have weighed in on the debate in petition campaigns and deserve to have their say.
Critics, including the opposition NDP, say Smith is playing a double game: enabling the referendum to appease separatist hardliners in her party while campaigning to stay in Canada in order to stay onside with centrist voters.
Polls suggest a large majority of Albertans reject separation.
