Not all the signs are good, but many are.
A check-in with federal candidates in the North Okanagan-Shuswap riding on Sept. 7 about how their campaign signs are faring produced varied answers.
Two parties reported no thefts or vandalism during this election campaign, two reported varying degrees of vandalism with one dealing with a spelling error, and one hadn’t put up signs yet.
Green Party candidate Andrea Gunner said she’d had no signs stolen or vandalized, and Conservative candidate Mel Arnold’s campaign manager, Linda Hawes, said this has been an “extraordinarily clean campaign.” She said that wasn’t the case in 2015 or 2019 in terms of vandalism.
People’s Party of Canada candidate Kyle Delfing said an artist in Gatineau, Quebec did all the PPC candidates’ signs and, unfortunately, local party officials weren’t able to review them because they were received during the campaign kick-off.
Shuswap ended up with an extra ‘h’. He said it was not a big deal and signs were either corrected or partially covered.
“I know how to spell. I did my artwork for the old signs,” he assured, noting if that’s his biggest problem, he’s doing well.
He said one sign of his on Highway 6 was vandalized with the word ‘fascist’ during the previous two campaigns; this time someone cut his face out. Overall he said it’s been his best campaign, with more signs on private property.
Liberal candidate Shelley Desautels said her signs have gone missing – a couple in Salmon Arm and more in Vernon, but vandalism hasn’t been too bad.
She said the day prior to the interview someone had gone to the effort to destroy the plastic bag signs by wrecking the wires that hold them up and tossing them into the bushes.
Desautels said what has been experienced is aggressive behaviour aimed at the volunteers putting up her signs.
“We’ve had had people yelling at them and coming out at them aggressively,” she said, more in areas towards Tappen and Sorrento but a little in Salmon Arm.
NDP candidate Ron Johnston had a clean slate to report – for good reason.
“I can say we’ve had no signs disappear or get vandalized, as they’re starting to go out tonight,” he said.
Johnston said he has seen vandalism of other signs and he expected his would not be targeted as much as the other two big parties.
Read more: Sign vandals strike as federal election campaign begins in Kelowna
Read more: Lower Mainland city bans election signs from public property, highways
Read more: VIDEO: Langley man wants to recycle election signs into sleeping mats for the homeless
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