Women's group monitoring 'sexist' election sign vandalism

Melissa Handrahan was driving to church last Sunday in Tignish, P.E.I., when she and her young son made an upsetting discovery.

One of her large campaign signs — bearing a photo of Handrahan — had been defaced. Someone had scrawled an offensive phrase beside her photo. And drawn on her face as well.

"The hardest part was that my son was asking questions. He's only four years old," said Handrahan. "So that was the most difficult part of the whole day."

'It is a barrier'

Handrahan is the Progressive Conservative candidate in District 27 - Tignish-Palmer Road. She's one of 35 female candidates running for election. 

And she's not the only contender — male or female — who's had election signs defaced, damaged or destroyed, some with obscene graffiti.

A group that is trying to encourage more women to enter politics is watching the trend.

"For women who are considering running, we do have concerns. It is a barrier. It might actually dissuade women from putting their names forward in the first place," said Dawn Wilson, executive director of the Coalition for Women in Government.

'Obviously targeted'

Liberal candidate Paula Biggar was upset by the damage done to one of her campaign signs.

She said it was planned, using sheet metal and screws in the effort.

"What concerns me about this particular one is it was obviously targeted against a female candidate," said Biggar. "If they took the time to really plan this out — what kind of attitude they have towards women in general."

Biggar and Green candidate Hannah Bell have also posted comments in social media about the destruction and damage to their campaign signs.  

Male candidates, including Progressive Conservative incumbent Brad Trivers, have not been spared.

The NDP said it is a problem but their signs haven't been hard hit.

Wilson's coalition is following social media posts by female candidates, to keep an eye on who is reporting vandalism. Their observations suggest vandalism is on the rise and more of it is against women, according to Wilson.

She concedes the coalition does not have hard numbers, but said the incidents reported so far are cause for concern.

"It's especially important for organizations and individuals to call out sexist attacks when we see them directed towards women candidates," said Wilson.

'So very degrading'

Former candidate and city councilor Melissa Hilton knows what it's like. Her signs were marked up and slashed during a provincial byelection two years ago.

"To have such an offensive, phallic drawing on your face is just so very degrading and it's extremely upsetting," said Hilton.

"It does seem to take a whole new level when it's attacking women … it's difficult to throw your name out there in the first place and then to have this happen, it's even that much more discouraging."

Pornography to blame?

Handrahan discovered three of her election signs were defaced in last weekend's incident, all with similar graffiti.

"Pornography is a big issue in our world. I think we need to look at society as a whole and see where can we address what is being fed into the heads of our young people and then try to address it at the root cause," she said.

Handrahan said town officials checked surveillance-camera footage, but couldn't identify any suspects. She said the incident doesn't bother her.

"I'm not going to say I was targeted because I'm a woman or because my skin is a different colour," said Handrahan, whose parents come from India.

"Maybe I have tough skin. I don't read too much into it."

On their way out of church last Sunday, Handrahan said she and her son saw someone, cloth in hand, cleaning one of her signs.

"That was pretty magical. It brought me to tears."

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