Liberal candidate for Kanata-Carleton Karen McCrimmon says “politics should be civil” after a threatening lawn sign was found in the riding saying Liberals will be shot.
McCrimmon tweeted a photo of the sign early Monday morning.
In the photo, the apparently handwritten sign, which reads: “We shoot every 3rd Liberal 2nd one just left,” can be seen next to a sign for Conservative candidate Justina McCaffrey.
“OK… I must admit to struggling with this but I decided that by being silent I would not do right by my team or by my beliefs that politics should be civil,” McCrimmon wrote. “When we see an example of intolerance or suggestions of violence, we must challenge them.”
McCrimmon is the Liberal incumbent for the riding and a Canadian veteran who served in Afghanistan.
In a subsequent tweet, she said she wore a “flak jacket in Afghanistan to help secure the people there, the right to vote.”
“Damned if I would allow this to pass unchallenged,” she added.
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In a statement emailed to Global News on Monday, a spokesperson for McCrimmon said the sign was located in the western part of the riding on Sunday afternoon and that the campaign “takes incidents of this nature very seriously and has alerted the local police for their review.”
In an email to Global News on Monday, Ottawa Police confirmed that officers received a call for service at around 6 p.m. on Sunday and said “the matter is under investigation.”
In a tweet Monday, McCaffrey said she “couldn’t agree more” with McCrimmon.
“Threats of political violence have no place in our democracy,” she wrote. “I’ve instructed my campaign to remove our sign from this property.”
In an email to Global News Monday afternoon, McCaffrey said as soon as she became aware of the handmade sign, her campaign sign was removed from the property.
“Nobody should be threatened with violence for their political beliefs,” she wrote. “I absolutely condemn this sign.”
The news comes just a week after McCaffrey faced harsh criticism following a video tweeted by a Liberal candidate in which McCaffrey appears to be pitching a reality TV show with far-right political activist Faith Goldy.
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In a statement issued by the Conservative party, McCaffrey said the video with Goldy was from 2013 and that she hasn’t seen Goldy “in several years.”
Election signs defaced
Meanwhile, another Ottawa-area candidate reported having a number of his campaign signs damaged over the weekend.
“My team and I were sad and disappointed to see the damage done to my election signs all over our riding this weekend,” wrote Chris Rodgers, Liberal candidate for Carleton, in a Facebook post on Sunday.
Rodgers said his signs had been cut down, run over and covered in mud.
“These deliberate acts of vandalism have been reported to the Ottawa police,” he wrote.
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