‘Somewhat unusual’: Caller admits to stealing Gondek election signs

CALGARY – Calgary mayoral candidate Jyoti Gondek has had almost 200 of her signs stolen and thrown away recently, as there have been some claims that their placement is in contravention to local bylaws.

While having an election sign stolen is not uncommon, what makes it strange is that the campaign has a good idea who did it — because the individual called twice to admit it.

“We are picking them up and taking them to the dump,” the caller said in the recorded message. “Have a good day! You shouldn’t try to cheat when you’re running for mayor.”

Campaign Manager Stephen Carter said no bylaws are being broken, and they have forwarded the information to Calgary police.

“We’ve lost over 160 signs in two wards, wards 13 and 14. Obviously, you lose signs throughout the campaign, this isn’t newsworthy, but to have someone call afterwards and take credit for removing all your signs and throwing them in the dump is somewhat unusual,” he said.

1/5 Interesting news from the campaign trail that plays like an episode of Scooby-Doo. We’ll call it The Great Gondek Disappearing Sign Mystery. Ruh-roh.

It starts with 160 signs going missing in Wards 13 & 14. Ends with a strange phone call from “Bob”. pic.twitter.com/QPtsrX6oC0

— Jyoti Gondek (@JyotiGondek) June 14, 2021

In the first call, the thief said the signs are “illegal” but there was also a second call from the same man that crossed over into racially charged territory.

“As a woman, as a person of minority — race and religion — she should know better than to disgrace her kind,” he said.

Carter said this was the call that made them take the situation more seriously.

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He added they have a good idea of who did it.

“The second call was probably more problematic, in that he made more racially motivated statements,” he said. “Sadly, things are getting worse and not better in the short term here in terms of people’s views on race and people who are the same or different than them.

“The voices match, the telephone numbers match, everything is the exact same. We know who this person is.”

Carter said that complaints about the signs, concerning their placement and the content on the signs, are unfounded. Recently, a press release from a competing candidate also alleged that Gondek’s signs were illegal.

“We’re not breaking any bylaws. People who know the bylaw, for example, the bylaw officers, know that we’re not breaking the bylaws. So, this is a frustration for us that people misunderstand, either deliberately or otherwise, the bylaws and the rules.”

While more specific campaign signs are only allowed immediately before the vote, signs such as Gondek’s — which are usually advertising public events — are not in violation of the rules as long as they are not left in one spot for more than two weeks.

The City of Calgary pointed to specific rules that say signs promoting an event must be removed within 24 hours of that event concluding, and Carter said they are abiding by that. Special rules around signage only come into effect between Sept. 20 to Oct. 18, also covering how long signs can stay in one place and when they need to be removed after the vote has concluded.

Moving ahead, Carter said they won’t be fazed by this incident and they are now fundraising to replace the signs and continue pushing forward with the campaign.

“Getting information into Calgarians’ hands, in possibly the most important election in decades, is our most important job,” he said. “I don’t know where the high road goes. I think that there’s a road forward for making sure that political campaigns are successful, and the first thing is that people need to know that you’re running. Signs, brochures, ads, those things are required elements of a campaign and we will continue to do those.”

Most campaign operations have gone virtual due to the pandemic, with Gondek hosting coffee meetings online, but there’s hope that some more in-person events can go ahead as restrictions ease.