Angry in the Great White North

From a reader:

In Ottawa-Vanier, the Liberal incumbent has his campaign office in the same small plaza as the returning office.  I was driving past there today and I noticed that in Mauril Belanger's window, there were the yellow Elections Canada signs pointing where to vote.

OK, I know there are rules about party advertising near a polling station.  Now those rules probably apply to the polling location in particular, and specifically to any advertising that would be visible from the voting screen.  Common sense makes me wonder if, however, potential voters might be influenced by the Liberal signs for Mauril Belanger surrounding signs that direct people to the polling station.  I can easily imagine some voters wondering if this is where Liberals are supposed to vote, and if there is a different location where voters for other parties are supposed to cast their votes.

It seems silly, I know, but people in Canada come from all over the world, with widely different electoral traditions, some not very democratic at all.  I remember a story about the old Soviet Union.  During sham elections, people would dutifully cast votes for the Party at an open table.  You could vote against the Party (there was no actual candidate, of course), but there was a side table for that, where you had to fill out a sheet and put in it a box, under the gaze of a stern Party official. 

Something about these pictures just bother me.  That story from years ago just popped into my head when I saw these pictures.