They’re not sure if it’s Richmond Centre candidate Lawrence Woo’s campaign elves working overtime or if it’s mischief-making as the election draws near.
Either way, suffice to say Francis Wei and her neighbour, Wayne Kosivich, are pretty hacked off with everyone concerned with the Liberal candidate for Richmond Centre after not once, but twice, campaign signs were erected on their lawns without permission.
Even though the vast majority of election campaign signs are put up on what is strictly City of Richmond property outside of people’s homes, the party in question must still seek the homeowner’s consent.
Wei was therefore surprised to see one of Woo’s larger signs, complete with wooden frame and supports plonked right outside her single-family house on Frobisher Drive, near Blundell and No. 1 roads.
Her husband, John, called neighbour Kosovich to check if he’d spotted anyone putting the sign up and if they were knocking on doors to ask permission.
Kosovich said he hadn’t seen nor heard anything and the pair dismantled the sign. And, not being able to find a phone number for Woo’s campaign office, Wei registered a complaint on Woo’s Facebook page.
“They came and took it away from the side of the house a day after I gave them my address,” said Wei, who had checked the City of Richmond rules regarding the erection of campaign signs.
“But the next morning (Wednesday), there was another three signs on the lawn! I was shocked. I don’t want to be labelled with any party. It’s my private business who I vote for. What’s wrong with them? Are they stupid?”
Whoever is randomly, or deliberately, erecting the signs also placed one, for good measure, onto Kosovich’s lawn next door.
“For it to happen once is an oversight; twice is just a joke,” said Kosovich. “Whether or not I like the Liberals is no one’s business but mine.
“They know the rules, as do realtors who ask all the time if they can put signs up. I tell them no and they respect that.”
Although there are rules regarding the signs, it seems few people in Woo’s office are playing by them.
When asked what process is followed regarding the seeking of permission, a member of Woo’s team said signs are given to people coming into the office. Those people simply say they need signs for certain addresses and no further questions are asked.
“We assume they’re doing it for their homes,” the woman said. “We don’t check if that house has given permission.”
Roger Wong, Woo’s campaign manager, said they had received a call from someone asking for a sign to be put up at Wei’s address. As for the second set of lawn signs going up a day after the original mistake, Wong said it was an “oversight” and will attempt to apologize to Wei.
“We have to pay someone to put those (bigger) signs up, so it doesn’t make sense for us to do this on purpose,” he added.
