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Friday, October 11, 2019

The federal election lawn sign game is getting nasty in Toronto

With the 2019 Canadian federal election now a little more than a week away, candidates of all stripes are stepping up their efforts.

Party leaders just had their final say on the national stage, while prospective Members of Parliament and their supporters are hustling at the local level in their own constituencies.

Some of said supporters are knocking on doors to speak with voters. Others are going about the fight in a less congenial way.

On Thursday night, members of a lawn sign team working for Don Valley East Conservative candidate Michael Ma were spotted "taking flying kicks" at signs posted in support of rival Liberal candidate Yasmin Ratansi.

Reddit user u/theendcafe posted a photo from the incident, which is said to have taken place on Don Mills Road near Lawrence Avenue East, and promptly contacted Ma to complain.

In his reply to the Redditor, Ma said he agreed that "this is not an acceptable behaviour."

"After my inquiry, the boys have acknowledged, apologized, and put back the sign that was down," he said, according to the Reddit user.

"Unfortunately most of my signs put up by these boys were destroyed. They felt frustrated but this is wrong. We all need to find a better way to express ourselves without these signs... I appreciate your email and I will ensure this will not happen again."

Earlier that same day, Ma had expressed his disappointment on Twitter over seeing photos of both Conservative and Liberal signs for his riding dumped near a trail.

"I was deeply disappointed to have this shared with me and my team. This is considered a criminal act and will not be tolerated," he said of the images.

"If you see this destruction going on, please contact my campaign. This is going on in other ridings across the Toronto and enough is enough."

Ma isn't alone in feeling frustrated over the vandalism of his and other candidates' lawn signs.

Beaches-East York Conservative candidate Nadira Nazeer shared photos of several vandalized signs promoting her campaign on Thursday, calling it the aftermath of a "lawn sign massacre."

"I was walking northbound on Woodbine and saw someone had upheaved your signs just north of the tracks/Gerrard," wrote one supporter in reply. "I replaced them only to be driving southbound and they were upheaved yet again."

And it's not only Conservative signs that are getting kicked around.

"A few weeks ago I tweeted a picture of my neighbours' sign and how someone had kicked it over," wrote another Toronto resident on Twitter of a Liberal candidate's lawn sign that wound up in her driveway. "This is ridiculously poor behaviour."

Whatever their politics, most people seem to agree that it's poor form to litter by dumping election signs anywhere. 


by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO

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