Campaign signs have drawn the ire of vandals in Calgary of late as candidates face an uphill battle in replacing the placards that have been destroyed, defaced, or removed.
Marites Windsor, who runs a day home out of her northwest home, had the words ‘Racist’ and ‘Nazi’ spray painted on the side of her residence and she believes the vandalism was a targeted attack in response to the ‘Stop Notley’ sign her husband had placed on their front yard.
“It’s shocking for me,” said Windsor. “I totally feel like I’m in a free country. I can voice out my opinion.”
Windsor says the troubling graffiti was removed but not before the parents of the children who attend her day home spotted it. “What’s important is the parents know me and they know that I’m not that kind of person.”
The Windsors say they received offers to help clean the paint off the walls from neighbours and complete strangers. “That was really, really great.”
Gar Gar, the Alberta Party candidate in Calgary-East, watched on earlier this week as a landlord destroyed one of his signs in front of him, a sign that the tenant had agreed to display on the lawn. The incident was recorded and shared on social media.
After seeing the video of the destruction, a couple in Calgary-East reached out to Gar to have a larger sign placed in their yard. “It was quite disturbing that someone could do that to somebody’s personal property,” said Janine Keller of the incident. “We’re very fortunate to be homeowners so we thought why not take advantage and get some more signage up and really put our support behind what we believe in.”
Gar says damaged signs have become a common occurrence. “Overall, in this election, there’s so (many) signs that are missing, defaced, that we can’t keep up. I think in every party it’s now become a trend.”
Gar encourages all candidates to take responsibility for the care of their signs as well as the signs of their opponents. “We are here to show the community that we want to build that community,” said Gar. “It’s not a fight in the mud. It’s coming back to show people why they should vote for us.”
With files from CTV’s Chris Epp
