Angry in the Great White North

Liberal Party MP Garth Turner has a few things to say about people who tear down election signs:

The comedic moment of the day came when a reporter for one of the local papers called to tell me the local Liberal had complained that his signs were being torn down. Vanished, actually -- inferring in heavy tones that it was the Conservative goon sign crew that was doing the deed.

Of course, as I have mentioned here before, it has been Conservative signs which have been laying down their plastic hearts and souls for the cause since this campaign began. We have seen the shoulders and intersections of major arterial roads picked clean of the blue placards in a single evening -- leaving those red things waving in their place. Our signs have been sliced and diced, suffered broken and splintered wooden limbs, and been knocked into ditches where they were then buried alive by passing snowplows.

Wait a second.  Something's not right here.  It was Garth Turner's Liberal signs that were wrecked.

Here's a photo:

What the...?  Oh, I see my mistake.  I've reading Garth Turner's 2005 entry on how his signs were being destroyed by dastardly Liberals who don't respect democracy and are trying to intimidate those who oppose them.

I should be reading Garth Turner's 2008 entry:

Driving to doorknock a poll in Milton, I passed miles of trashed election signs – arterials accordion-folded into uselessness, hanging off stubby broken stakes or tossed in the ditch. As I mentioned the other day, my campaign is the only one which has any signs up across the riding, the product of hard-working crews of volunteers. Now, garbage.

Here's a photo:

See, in 2008, now that Garth Turner is a member of the Liberal Party, it is the dastardly Conservatives who don't respect democracy and are trying to intimidate those who oppose them.

I guess there are two explanations. Well, three really.

• Garth Turner emits an aura that compels those on his side to act only in the best traditions of democratic debate and fair play.  Those who are beyond the reach of Garth Turner's glory revert to thuggish behaviour.
• People don't like Garth Turner.  Don't matter what party, which election, what season of the year.  If it has got his name and face on it, there are people who'll knock it down.
• Maybe it's just the weather.  You know -- wind, rain, stuff like that.

I won't venture to guess which is true.

For what it's worth, vandalism is wrong.  I don't care who does it, and who's the target, and whether it's related to an election or not.  It victimizes everyone.  Even those people who like to think they're always being victimized when they're not.  Really, don't encourage those people.

Predictions: Those sorts of people?  The ones who live to play the victim?  They're very predictable.

A Creepy Thought: If Liberals were behind the vandalism of Garth Turner's signs in 2005, the it stands to reason that Garth Turner is working with those vandals today in 2008, since Garth Turner is now a Liberal.  Get out of the riding office, Garth!  We traced the call!  The vandal is inside the office with you!!