The local Liberal candidate’s campaign office has been vandalized twice within one week.
Will Davis, the Liberal candidate in New Westminster-Burnaby, recently opened his campaign office at 648 Sixth St. in Uptown New West. He arrived at the office this morning (Sept. 13) to find it had been vandalized for the second time in a week.
“It is disappointing,” he told the Record. “If the intention of this is to deter me or our team, they are sadly mistaken. This is only going to make us have more resolve and get out there and work even harder.”
In the first incident, which occurred sometime between the evening of Thursday, Sept. 5 and the morning of Friday, Sept. 6, someone glued the lock on the door closed. A locksmith was needed to replace the lock, which was vandalized on the morning of the office’s open house.
A week later, Davis arrived at the office to find that someone had written “Elect a new PM” on the window in white paint. That occurred sometime between 9 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 12 and 8 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 13.
“This vandalism was politically charged,” he said.
Davis said the lock incident was meant to “kneecap us and slow us down” as his team couldn’t get into the office until it was fixed.
“It’s a crying shame in an open democracy that you need to have cameras, that you need to have these kinds of things, that a couple of bad people are going to act out and do these kinds of things in what is a great riding,” Davis said. “We have met many people. I’ve gone on doorsteps, I’ve gone on the streets, I’ve been at events – this does not represent the riding. We will continue to work with the police because these people need to be brought to justice, they need to pay for this illegal act.”
The New Westminster Police Department has been contacted regarding both incidents.
“They have come to our office and filed reports. They are going to add some patrols. They had some advice to us around placement of cameras and such,” Davis said.
Neighbours are also on the lookout for suspicious activity, he added.
“In the 338 races across the country, as far as I know this is the unique situation for New West Burnaby,” Davis said.
