Candidates for the riding of Airdrie-Cochrane are speaking out after several campaign signs have been destroyed and defaced.

It’s an issue happening across the province. Campaign signs have been broken, or spray painted with hateful and even racist comments.

NDP party candidate Steve Durrell said someone has been going around cutting apart his campaign signs.

“It’s not someone just walking along and tipping over a sign or knocking a sign over,” said Durrell. “It’s someone walking around with a knife and cutting out a sign so it can’t be used.”

It’s not just one party being targeted either.

United Conservative Party candidate Peter Guthrie said his campaign signs have also been hit by vandals.

“There had been a piece cut out from my face and then on the other side some stab marks through the face with possible a screwdriver or something like that,” explained Guthrie.

One of Guthrie’s large signs was torn up and thrown onto a road. He said because of the damage being done, volunteers now go out every morning to check on them.

“We started sending out some patrols (...) in the morning to have a look at the signs, see if they’re there, missing or damaged; but also, and most importantly, that they’re not causing any road hazard,” Guthrie said.

While sign vandalism is something we see occurring in some way during most election campaigns, Durrell said he feels it’s worse this year.

“It’s a level of vandalism we haven’t really seen before across the province,” said Durrell.

Guthrie said he doesn’t take the destruction of the signs personally, but said residents should express their opinions and frustrations at the ballot box by casting their votes.

“Possibly emotions are running high and they express themselves this way,” said Guthrie. “It's something we really wish that people would refrain from and on April 16th, get out to the polls and express their opinion that way."

Anyone caught defacing or destroying campaign signs could be ticketed and fined for vandalism.

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