Editorial
Leave candidates' campaign signs alone

It's sickening that an editorial like this is necessary, but events have demonstrated that it is.

With a little less than a month to go before the municipal elections, we have received reports of campaign signs being vandalized in King. We have heard those stories from at least two campaigns, and we suspect there will be more such incidents.

We're not going to name the candidates who have been thusly victimized, for two reasons. One is these are the only ones we have heard about. It's quite possible that their opponents have had similar damage done to some of their signs that we haven't heard about. As well, there is the possibility (probably remote) that supporters or team members of one campaign are deliberately

damaging their own signs in the hopes the other side will be blamed.

Whatever the motivation might be, such acts of vandalism are uncalled for, inexcusable and contrary to the spirit of democracy, which is what these signs are supposed to represent.

Whoever is responsible, and for whatever reason, it's hard to understand who is served by such activity. Certainly, the public profile of no campaign is enhanced when the serious business of politics is reduced to antics that would not be tolerated in any kindergarten.

Election signs are one of the means candidates use to get their message to the electorate. They are also, in many cases, indicators of the level of support a candidate enjoys. If you have problems

with the way a candidate is performing on the hustings, or you're concerned that he or she might not execute the office they are seeking to your satisfaction, there are ways you can act. Voting for another candidate is a very effective method. Volunteering for that candidate's campaign is a good strategy too. It's very unlikely you'll be turned away of you show up all ready to work. Depending on where you live in King, you might even want to put a candidate's sign on your lawn (the two Township council candidates in Ward 2 have agreed to put restrictions on that).

These are all useful and productive ways to help shape this municipality into a place where you would want to live and raise your children. In fact, there are

probably a lot of parents reading this who would be pretty proud to show their children that they get involved in local municipal politics. How many parents would brag to their kids about ripping apart campaign signs simply because they disagree with a candidate's politics?

It's naive to hope that this type of nonsense could somehow be stopped. It's an unfortunate part of all elections. But honourable members of the electorate should be able to do better.

A note about letters

Now that we are in the middle of a full-fledged municipal election campaign, a lot of you are forming your opinions on the various candidates and issues, and might be inclined to put your thoughts to paper, in the form of a letter to the editor.

That's great news for us, and we encourage these letters. We will be happy to print as many as we can, available space in the paper being the main deciding factor.

Please also remember that we reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, brevity, accuracy and to make sure that nothing legally actionable gets into print.

The Nov. 1 edition of the paper is the last one in which election-related letters from the general public will be printed. The following edition, Nov. 8, will be the last one before the election, and that we leave open to the candidates, and only if they are responding to specific statements made or written about them.

Keep those letters coming.