Conservative candidate for Nepean says hundreds of election signs missing

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The Conservative Party candidate for Nepean who is facing Liberal Leader Mark Carney at the ballot box says hundreds of her election signs have gone missing.

Barbara Bal also alleged the wooden stakes from her blue election signs were found on Carney’s red signs.

“No matter how many times they take my signs down, my hardworking team will always put them back up,” Bal wrote Tuesday night on social media site X. “This is the reality of a Conservative woman working hard for her community.”

Bal, who has served as a reserve member of the Royal Canadian Artillery for a decade and as a police officer for more than 25 years, said her campaign has already received multiple statements and video footage of these incidents.

Her campaign also filed a report to the Ottawa Police.

According to the Criminal Code, the destruction of private property is a criminal offence.

An election candidate can also file a complaint in writing to the Commissioner of Canada Elections, which is responsible for investigating offences such as the destruction of signs under the Canada Elections Act.

Bal believes the act of removing election signs is a way to silence her voice.

“Pulling down and stealing hundreds of my signs, placing my opponent’s signs on my wooden stakes, and dumping mine in the garbage is not the practice of democracy, it is a deliberate attempt to silence a voice and disrupt the democratic process,” she wrote.

Bal also shared video evidence of wooden stakes with painted blue tops and NCA – for Nepean Conservative Association – written on the side that had Carney signs attached to them.

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“We are discovering that hundreds of our signs are missing,” Bal said in the video. “We have found many of our signs in the garbage. We have also discovered empty holes and, in other instances, wooden stakes with blue tips and NCA written on them bearing my opponent’s red sign.”

A message was sent to the Liberal Party seeking comment about the allegations.

“This is unacceptable,” Bal said. “Our community deserves better. We must stand united against such actions which tarnish the democratic ideals that we hold dear.”