A South Asian mayoral candidate in Surrey has filed a police complaint after dozens of her campaign signs were defaced by vandals.
Barinder Rasode with the One Surrey party has spent $40,000 on replacing signs since the start of her campaign, reported CTV News. Finding 50 of her signs vandalized overnight prompted her to file the complaint.
“The signs aren't going up fast enough and they’re being damaged," Rasode told CTV. "My sons are staying up until midnight trying to repair the damaged signs."
Others targeted include council candidates Justin Thind and Rina Gill, according to The Link.
Rasode wants to ban election signs across all levels of government in Surrey, which she says would create a level playing field and bring down costs associated with running a campaign, according to VancouverDesi.com.
“What we would do is change the digital sign bylaw so that during the campaign people can purchase equal space on the digital sign,” she told the publication.
As for the current sign problem, another mayoral candidate believes the vandalism is racially charged.
“Every single sign that’s out there has a team attached to it, and it’s only the South Asian names that are being defaced,” Surrey First's Linda Hepner told The Link.
And the race for the mayoral seat is getting uglier leading up to the Nov. 15 election. Doug McCallum and his Safe Surrey team have been trying to find out who is behind a fake Twitter account that released a video depicting the city in an unflattering way.
McCallum told The Link he is also disappointed about the vandalism and reminds candidates that Halloween is around the corner.
“I've been in four elections and Halloween is always a problem," he said. "So we’ll just make sure we have a crew out the next day to check on the signs."
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