‘Frustrating’: NDP Signs Keep Disappearing from Northern Riding

When BC NDP candidate Nathan Cullen began his campaign with more than 300 election signs last month, he believed it would be plenty to see his team through to voting day on Oct. 19.

But he’s now fundraising to order more — an expense in the thousands of dollars — after nearly 150 signs disappeared from lawns and public spaces throughout his riding in Bulkley Valley-Stikine in recent weeks.

Cullen called the apparent thefts “frustrating.” Eight large, double-sided signs have also been vandalized or destroyed.

“This is not random kids stealing a sign for a lark,” the incumbent MLA said. “It's systematic.”

Shortly after the writ dropped on Sept. 21, Smithers, a community in Cullen’s riding with a population just over 5,000, was awash in both the blue and orange signs representing the BC Conservatives and BC NDP, seemingly in equal numbers. The parties are in a dead heat to win next week’s election.

But in the weeks since, the orange NDP signs have virtually disappeared from the local landscape.

Four signs have been taken from his own front lawn while he slept, Cullen said.

The disappearances, which he said have cost the campaign up to $6,000, have even been reported along remote Highway 37, which extends north from Highway 16 near Hazelton and travels all the way to the Yukon border. Bulkley Valley-Stikine is the largest riding in the province, encompassing northwest B.C.

Cullen ran five successful federal campaigns and served as a member of Parliament before being elected to the B.C. legislature in 2020. The seasoned politician said it’s common to lose about a dozen signs during a campaign — but he’s never seen anything like the current losses.

Cullen isn’t alone. In other parts of the province, candidates from the NDP, Conservatives and Green Party have all reported sign tampering. In a social media post Wednesday afternoon, Chris Sankey, BC Conservative candidate for North Coast-Haida Gwaii, said he’d found missing campaign brochures strewn along a trail in Prince Rupert.

“This election has had a lot of negativity come my way, and I've been handling it, but this is too far,” Sankey wrote on X. “That someone thinks this is appropriate is infuriating. It's an affront to democracy.”

The Tyee reached out to both Sankey and the Conservative Party of BC for further comment but did not receive a response prior to deadline.

The Conservative candidate in Bulkley Valley-Stikine, Sharon Hartwell, was asked about Cullen’s missing NDP signs during an all-candidates forum in Smithers on Tuesday evening. She said she was “very disturbed” by the thefts.

“This is not democracy. This is not what we do. We debate. We talk. We try and engage with one another,” Hartwell said. “Absolutely, this is wrong.”

Cullen said Wednesday that his team had contacted Elections BC and the RCMP. They have also received tips from the public and have passed those along to the police, he said.

“Frankly, the police have much better things to do than trying to find a truck with a bunch of my signs in the back, but a free and fair election is fundamental,” he said.

In an email, Elections BC senior communications adviser Melanie Hull said it’s common to receive complaints about damaged or vandalized election signs, but the office doesn’t collect statistics about the losses. She said the Election Act does not specifically address vandalism or theft of campaign signs.

But damaging or stealing election signs could result in mischief or theft charges, according to RCMP Sgt. Vanessa Munn. Penalties for the offences vary depending on whether the damage is under or over $5,000, Munn added.

“The RCMP is aware that some election signs have been damaged,” Munn said in an email, adding that she could not comment on how many reports had been received. “To damage or steal an election sign is a criminal offence and we encourage people to report these acts to their local police so that it can be investigated.”

Both the RCMP and Elections BC declined to say whether there had been an uptick in reports of sign tampering this election.

The thefts come amidst a heated election run.

The BC Conservatives shot to prominence over the past year after leader John Rustad was ejected from the BC Liberals in 2022 for expressing skepticism about climate change. He crossed the floor to become the Conservatives’ first sitting MLA in decades.

In the midst of declining popularity, the Liberals rebranded to become BC United last year. In August, leader Kevin Falcon folded the faltering centre-right party’s campaign and threw his support behind Rustad’s Conservatives.

The campaign that has followed has been described as toxic.

Cullen said the sign thefts are “emblematic” of the election’s tone. He likened the tampering to voter suppression and called it ironic in light of Rustad’s false claim last month that the upcoming election is “rigged.”

Cullen added that the thefts may have hardened the resolve of some voters to publicly support their preferred party — which could have the opposite of the intended effect, at least in Smithers.

“We had someone come in who, for the third time, has lost her lawn sign,” he said. “She asked for another sign, donated a cheque and said, ‘I've got four neighbours that also want signs because they've seen what's happening.’”

He expects more signs to be delivered this week.

“Will they last is another question,” he said.

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