The byelection campaign which ended a few days ago on Monday was marred by sign damage which has been called suspicious by some. A number of campaign signs were knocked down and damaged, and many of these signs were for candidate Colleen Tatum who saw most of her signs affected. Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo’s compliance officer for planning and development Stephen Chipchase noticed that an unusual number fo election signs were knocked down, and at least three campaigns were notified because some of the signs damaged belonged to each campaign. The candidates impacted included Colleen Tatum, Monte Vickerson, and Chris Flett. According to Chipchase “An awful lot of signs are down. They’re going around now picking them up.” Tatum saw all but 4 of her large signs knocked down, and Chipchase does not think this is a coincidence, saying “I can’t confirm and deny that, but it’s awfully suspicious. Wind doesn’t just blow down one sign in a pack of four.”

When asked about the sign damage to her byelection campaign signage Colleen Tatum responded “There’s been quite a few signs that have been going down day after day from vandalism. It’s really hard on volunteers, they’re working really hard to try and get signs up and keep them up. You’re going to start at -30C and end with rain, so you try to build a sign that’s going to withstand all of that.” Sign damage is no longer an issue since the byelection is over, but anyone who has a complaint about signs for an election can contact 780-788-4200.