Election Notebook
Signs vandalized
Evan Kiyoshi French
Northern News Services
Wednesday, October 7, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Council candidates Rebecca Alty and Marie-Soleil Lacoursiere had their signs vandalized last week.
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Council candidates Rebecca Alty, above, and Marie-Soleil Lacoursiere, below, had their signs vandalized late last week, but Alty got some help fixing hers from Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins. Both candidates are upset their signs were defaced. - McFadden/NNSL photos
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Alty, who is running for re-election, said she was frustrated, having learned via text message that one of her three large signs near the fire hall bore a black-permanent-marker mustache last Friday.
She said she wasn't in town at the time and was grateful someone removed the mock-facial hair on her behalf.
"Apparently (Yellowknife Centre MLA) Robert Hawkins went over and it wasn't that easy to do," she said. "It was permanent magic marker."
It's frustrating that someone would tamper with her sign, Alty said, since it's one of only three and they're expensive to produce.
"I don't take it personally though," she said.
In an e-mail, Lacoursiere stated she's "fired up," saying at least two of her signs were vandalized between Friday and Monday night. She stated she's upset and that female candidates are being targeted.
"There will be other women who see these who may have been considering how they can help improve the city in the office who will be discouraged because of this," she wrote.
Lacoursiere said she hopes to get out and fix or replace them in the near future.
"I will be seeing if I can clean them off but it looks like they will have to be replaced," she said.
The city has launched a mobile application to help residents figure out where to vote and who is running as well as find information about city services.
The Pingstreet application - billed as a one-stop mobile application for city services - launched last Thursday.
Mobile device users can download the app - which was currently in use in a number of other Canadian municipalities - onto their tablets or smartphones from their app store.
