Moe Amery, PC candidate, says vandals targeting his signs
A Progressive Conservative candidate says his campaign signs are being targeted by vandals, after hundreds have turned up defaced, broken or cut in half.
"I've been representing the area for 22 years and I think this is the first time we've seen this magnitude of destruction," said Moe Amery, running for re-election in Calgary-East.
Larry Leach, Amery's campaign manager, said they are seeing up to 30 or 40 signs damaged every night. Yellow paint and box cutters "seem to be the tools of the trade."
"It's not just your typical types of damage where kids are kicking signs down or any of that sort of thing and it seems to be targeted towards us as well," he said.
"Other campaign signs are left standing right next to ours."
Leach said the campaign has dealt with vandalism in previous years, but it has greatly increased this election. All told, he said, it adds up to around $7,000 in damage. While the campaign has been able to replace them, he said it does put strain on the volunteers.
"It doesn't look good to the public. We don't want the public to be upset with the mess from damaged signs all around."
Sign vandalism is one of the frustrations of running any political campaign. But other parties say their biggest problem is when signs go missing. They haven't seen damage to the same degree as Amery has.
"This should not be happening," said Liberal candidate Naser Al-Kukhun.
"This is not what the election is about."
While Amery said he has no idea who might be behind the vandalism, it has become enough of a problem that the campaign is offering a $1,000 reward to anyone who has information that leads to an arrest.
He urged anyone who knows who is behind the damage to call Calgary police. Until then, he said the campaign does not have many options other than simply cleaning up and replacing damaged signs.
"I hope that the voters out there will see through it."
