Slashed car tires, hateful graffiti, ripped campaign signs.

Vandalism, first reported in the ridings of St. Paul’s and Trinity-Spadina, has now spread to Davenport and Toronto Centre where, among others, Liberal heavyweight Bob Rae and Eric Hoskins, Liberal MPP from St. Paul’s, woke up on Saturday to see their car tires hacked.

“This isn’t vandalism as much as voter intimidation,” said Hoskins on Sunday. “Really, it’s a vicious attack on individuals and families expressing their political preference on their lawns.”

Hoskins lives in the north part of the Annex in St. Paul’s riding and five homes, including his, were targeted and all car tires slashed.

All of the houses had Liberal signs on the front lawns, he said.

“It’s a shocking thing to happen to you on your property,” said Hoskins, who had his car’s four tires changed over the weekend. “We will get over the destruction, the cost and personal infringement but incidents like these undermine our democracy.”

While Rae’s reaction was much more guarded, he acknowledged this is the “first campaign in which something like this has happened,” he said. “Obviously signs get torn down and other things happen in a campaign . . . I’m sorry this has happened, but life goes on.”

Rae tweeted late Saturday that the front left tire of his car was slashed.

“It sounds like it’s fairly widespread,” he said of the vandalism, adding that when his wife took the car to get a new tire, somebody else was already at the shop whose car had been damaged by a key.

Rae said one Liberal supporter in his riding declined to have a Liberal lawn sign. “No thanks, I don’t want to get my tires slashed,” Rae quoted the man as saying.

At least two-dozen cases of vandalism have been reported from downtown ridings in the past couple of days.

Police from 53 Division are investigating at least 19 cases of cars with slashed tires and scratched paint in the Soudan Ave.-Hoyle Ave. area. Most of the vehicles were damaged late Thursday night, but others were targeted later in the weekend.

Officers from 14 Division are investigating a half-dozen similar cases of destruction of cars in Trinity-Spadina, near Bloor and Bathurst Sts. Eight bicycles also had their tires punctured.

The campaign is getting really dirty, said Wayne Scott, the Green Party candidate in Davenport.

Scott, who lives at Shannon St., a quiet street near Ossington and College Sts., woke up on Saturday morning and saw his lawn sign had been ripped up along with three of his neighbours’. They were all Green Party signs, he said.

“We are looked on as the spoilers in Davenport,” said Scott, adding he got more than 10 per cent of the vote in 2008. “There were some nasty tricks played last time too but no vandalism.”

New Democratic Party signs have also been targeted in Trinity-Spadina, according to Joe Cressy, campaign chair for incumbent MP Olivia Chow. He said between 10 and 50 NDP signs are damaged every night.

Speaking to reporters at a campaign event in Saanich, B.C., Conservative Leader Stephen Harper condemned the vandalism and suggested Conservative candidates have been the target of vandals too.

“We suffer acts of vandalism and these sorts of things as well. None of them are acceptable. They should not happen in a campaign. A democratic campaign is ultimately based on tolerance of other partisan viewpoints,” Harper said.

“We all have enough to do just trying to get our own views to the voters. We don’t have enough time to run interference with other campaigns. If we become aware of any such incidents and any knowledge of them, we report them and I encourage all parties to do the same,” he said.

Conservative officials later said Conservative candidate Rick Dykstra in St. Catharines has had signs vandalized as well as Ryan Hastman in Edmonton Strathcona.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff called the recent spate of vandalism “utterly unacceptable.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“There are people out there who take partisanship to threatening extremes, and the part of this that’s serious is that every Canadian should be free to vote and free to express their political preferences,” he added. “And I think it’s a bad day when in Toronto, people who are working for another party or put a lawn sign up get their cars vandalized.”

Ignatieff and Rae stressed they are not blaming Harper for this kind of thing. “We’ve got our problems with Mr. Harper but I don’t think he’s slashing our tires. I think I want to make that clear,” the Liberal leader said.

With files from Bruce Campion-Smith and Les Whittington