With three weeks until Londoners head to the polls, candidates in various ends of the city are seeing their campaign signs stolen, damaged, and destroyed.
Josh Morgan, who is running for re-election in Ward 7, tweeted Sunday morning that vandals had slashed signs and bent sign frames along a stretch of Wonderland Road North, near Sarnia Road. Roughly 20 signs were left mangled and dangling from posts and on the ground.
"[The vandals] were pretty indiscriminate in the destruction. It didn't seem like they cared about one particular candidate over another. Every sign was a target in this case," said Morgan.
Every sign posted on the northwest corner of the street, whether for a ward councillor, mayor, or school board trustee, suffered some degree of damage. The mass sign destruction is frustrating and devastating to candidates who rely on donations to pay for signs and volunteers to put them in place, said Morgan.
"Depending on what you put on your sign it can range in price from $15 to $35 each. If it's just a one colour sign it will be cheaper. If it is a full-colour picture sign it is going to be more expensive. The steel frame that holds them up ranges between $5 and $8 per post. It adds up pretty quick if you think about 20 signs being damaged for multiple candidates," said Morgan.
Signs stolen from the the Gainsborough Rd. and Aldersbrook Rd. area and dumped in the Hunt Club area. Submitted photo.
Signs have also been snatched from residents' private property in the Gainsborough Road and Aldersbrook Road area, driven to another ward 3km away and dumped on a random lawn.
"I can't understand why someone would do something like that," said Morgan. "It is a very odd thing to do."
The election sign vandalism isn't limited to the northwest end of the city, signs have been reported as damaged in multiple wards by dozens of candidates. Kevin Wilbee, a candidate in Ward 13, had about 40 signs damaged or stolen on Adelaide Street and Horton Street. Arielle Kayabaga, who is also running in Ward 13, had signs kicked over and urinated on, and Ward 2 candidate Shawn Lewis had a homophobic message spray-painted on one of his campaign signs.
“Since the election signs went up at the end of July, there has been an attrition rate of up to five signs a week going missing for any number of reasons," said Wilbee. "However, this past week stood out because of so many signs being damaged or lost at the same time.”
Wilbee believes his signs are being targeted by vandals who used box cutters to cause the damage, while leaving the signs of his seven opponents untouched.
Morgan said the vandalism seems to be worse this year than in past municipal elections, but he noted it hasn't deterred volunteers or donors from offering their assistance.
"They are continuing to support campaigns and they are continuing to support the candidates that they feel speak for them," said Morgan. "This is a really unfortunate waste of time and money, but it is not stopping anybody from participating in the democratic process."
