Election sign Tampering in Harrowsmith

Jeff Green | Apr 21, 2011

John McEwen, a long-time Liberal Party supporter, said that he was harassed as he was putting up a Dave Remington sign in Harrowsmith last week.

“At the beginning of the campaign I put a small sign up on Road 38 at the bottom of the village and last Thursday I was replacing it with a larger sign,” McEwen said.

He said that he was just finishing putting in the first of two stakes for the sign when a man, whom he did not know, drove up to him in a red Ford truck.

“He came to me and said ‘you can’t put that sign there’. I told him that under the election act I can put a sign up on any piece of public property and that it is an offence for anyone to deface or tear down an election sign, but as I went back to my truck to get a second stake the man physically broke the first stake,” McEwen told the News.

McEwen reported that he eventually did put up his Dave Remington sign, but not before he wrote down the license plate of the man who had broken his stake. He made a police report to OPP Constable Gonzalez.

“The constable asked me what I wanted to do about this and I told him I would like to see the man charged,” McEwen said.

McEwen attended the Frontenac detachment on Monday to make a statement. Constable Gonzales was not on shift when the News contacted the detachment on Tuesday, and we will find out what has transpired for next week’s paper.