Signs of enmity as Thornhill race winds up

PETER KENT OBJECTS to the two large Mock signs having been placed on the boulevard and not near a corner in this photo, on the south side of Centre Street east of Carl Tennen Street in Thornhill. The Kent signs are on private property. This is one of 23 photos the Kent team submitted to VaughanToday.ca claiming to be evidence of Mock signs having been placed illegally.

No more Mr. Nice Guy in Thornhill.

It’s the eleventh hour in the campaign leading up to Monday’s federal election, but the gloves have come off in the race between the unlikeliest of combatants: the normally congenial Peter Kent, the Conservative incumbent, and Dr. Karen Mock, his Liberal challenger.

Three other candidates in the race — Norbert Koehl of the Green Party, Simon Strelchik of the NDP and Liz White of the Animal Alliance Environment Voters of Canada Party — took shots at the frontrunning Kent and Mock for their policies in earlier all-candidates debates. But Kent and Mock, the only two with a chance of winning on Monday, are now pointing fingers at each other’s ethics.

The spat is about the placement of election signs. It was set off by remarks Mock made to reporter Tristan Carter for a story posted on VaughanToday.ca on Friday.

In the story, Kent had said he has put out a record number of signs. Mock remarked that that doesn’t equate to a record level of support, then added: “What we did discover was that most of the signs that Mr. Kent had placed were placed there without asking permission.”

It prompted Kent to write a letter to the editor of Vaughan Today, in which he claims to be able to document permission from more than 4,000 who accepted Conservative signs, and accuses Mock of “sophomoric game playing and libel.” He also attached 23 photos of Mock signs, which he says are evidence that her staff “has seemingly been putting up illegal signs all over the riding.”