A video of a person mowing down a roadside election sign with a vehicle will be investigated by Ladysmith RCMP.
The video on Facebook — posted Sept. 26 and shot from inside a right-hand drive vehicle — already has more than 10,000 views. It shows a driver plowing into a large sign once before circling around for a second run. Traffic can be seen driving past on the highway during the incident, which occurred just south of Ladysmith near the south Davis Road intersection with the Island Highway.
“It was appalling,” said Mark MacDonald, Conservative Nanaimo-Ladysmith candidate, whose sign was destroyed in the video.
Destruction of an election sign falls under the Criminal Code.
“If there’s any way they can be identified, that would be a criminal offence — mischief,” said Supt. Mark Fisher of the Nanaimo RCMP. “The challenge would be identifying who it is.”
Fisher said he would forward the video on to the Ladysmith RCMP detachment.
Candidates from other camps say it’s not OK and call for cool heads so voters can focus on campaign issues, not signs.
Chantal O’Neill, Nanaimo-Ladysmith NDP campaign manager, called the driving “ridiculous.”
“How does someone get away with something like that?” she asked.
Ilan Goldenblatt, campaign manager for Green Party candidate Paul Manly, said he was “pretty appalled” to see the driver intentionally destroy someone’s sign.
“That is completely unacceptable behaviour, we’ve made it very clear to our supporters,” Goldenblatt said.
Liberal signs have been cut too, “and the money comes from the community,” said Susan Stevenson, campaign manager for candidate Tim Tessier.