Tory candidate apologizes for removing illegal signs

Conservative candidate Walter Pamic was caught Sunday on camera removing illegal election signs in his Kanata-Carleton riding, conduct for which he later reportedly apologized.

Elections Canada said campaign signs must state that they are authorized by a third party. It is an offence to remove, cover up, alter of deface a candidate’s sign. The yellow signs in Kanata did not say who authorized them, which violates the city’s bylaw and the Elections Act.

One area resident, Keith Selevich was walking his dog on Sunday near Beaverbrook and Teron roads when he saw a man loading the yellow signs into the back of his white truck. Since Selevich wasn’t sure if the man was allowed to do that, he pulled out his phone to record him removing the signs and replacing at least one with a Conservative Walter Pamic sign.

Selevich said he realized the man in the truck was actually Pamic himself before he confronted the Kanata-Carleton candidate about removing the signs.

“They are illegal signs. They are not authorized by any third party,” the man told Selevich in an exchange caught on video. “All the other signs are authorized, and these are not.”

Pamic could not be reached late Monday, but CBC reported that he had issued a statement apologizing for what he’d done.

He said he’d come across a “number of illegal signs” along Teron and Beaverbrook roads. CBC quoted Pamic saying, “As (the signs) violated the Canadian Elections Act, I took it upon myself to remove them.

“After discussing the matter with bylaw officers, I learned that I should have notified bylaw rather than remove the illegal signs. I apologize for the mistake.”

Even though the strategic voting signs are illegal, it is the responsibility of the city’s bylaw officers to take them down.

Meanwhile, in the Orléans riding where Liberal candidate Andrew Leslie is leading in the race against Conservative incumbent Royal Galipeau, similar signs have surfaced.

Roger Clark, an activist with the Ottawa Action Network, said his group is behind the signs that read, “Vote strategically to defeat Harper.” He said he doesn’t know who erected the ones in Kanata.

Clark said he didn’t know the signs were illegal until someone pointed out to him last week that they might contravene the city’s bylaw.

“It’s certainly not that we set out to break the law,” Clark said. “I think there is an ambiguity in the legality there.”