Blaming what he called a “culture of division” sown by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a London Liberal candidate trying for a political comeback found his campaign marred by ugly racial slurs Wednesday.

Khalil Ramal, a former MPP running in NDP-held London-Fanshawe, found dozens of damaged and defaced campaign signs in high-traffic areas of the riding, many black-marked “Muslin scum” and “Arab scum.”

“Sadly, this election has changed direction — from the economy and jobs, to what people wear,” said Ramal, referring to the growing national wedge-issue controversy over the wearing of the niqab.

An Arab who emigrated from Lebanon in 1989, Ramal was a two-term provincial legislator for the same riding in Dalton McGuinty’s government until he was defeated by a New Democrat in 2011.

At his campaign office, where’s he’s keeping the 30 ruined signs he’d collected, the would-be MP pointed at wedge politics.

“Its happened because the message from Harper and the Conservative party has divided people — they have a culture of division,” he said.

Ramal wasn’t the only one making that point Wednesday: So was Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, making his first London campaign stop amid an uptick in Liberal support as the election race enters its final days.

In an interview, Trudeau told Postmedia that Harper is trying to win the election with a “reckless” strategy of dividing Canadians over the niqab, and that his father, the late Pierre Trudeau, would be dismayed by what’s happening and relish the chance to talk about Canada’s history of rights and freedoms.

Harper said last February that Muslim women shouldn’t wear the niqab face covering at their citizenship ceremony because it’s “offensive” and it’s “not how we do things here.”

The issue has re-emerged during the campaign, with the Conservatives digging in their heels, and Harper saying this week that a re-elected Tory government would also examine whether public servants should be forbidden from wearing the niqab.

“I think it’s obvious that he’s playing very reckless and dangerous games, pitting Canadians against one another for a narrow political goal,” Trudeau said.

“Nobody thinks that Mr. Harper is actually doing this because he’s concerned about women’s rights or equality. That’s been clear from his stances on a wide range of subjects over the years.”

London-Fanshawe Conservative candidate Suzanna Dieleman, in an e-mailed statement, said there’s no place for defacing signs in the campaign.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the destruction of these lawn signs,” the e-mail said. “We encourage everyone to get involved in the democratic process in a constructive way, not by damaging signs, but by participating in a local campaign.”

Three-term NDP MP Irene Mathyssen, running again in London-Fanshawe, agreed the politics of division have intensified over the niqab.

“The prime minister has created this and it is unfortunate — it tells me he is creating a diversion,” from failed economic policies, said Mathyssen, also a former MPP.

“This is an example of a few people listening to the prime minister,” she said.

London police say they’re investigating the defacing of Ramal’s signs.

Ramal said he won’t let the slurs change his views. “This is a great country, there are great people in London-Fanshawe,” he said.

Martha Zimmerman reported one defaced sign to police Wednesday morning near her Pond Mills Road home, thinking it was a possible hate crime.

“I was going home from dropping my son off at school and I could not believe it,” she said of the sign on a neighbour’s lawn. “I was angry and disappointed. I did not want my kids to see that,” she said.

She said the slurs dopn’t reflect the ethnically diverse area, where she’s lived for about two years.

“I hate to see this become the focus of the election. I am frustrated by that.”

A London political scientist said it’s not surprising a racial backlash could erupt, since the niqab has emerged as an emotional, hot-button issue.

“It has become a major election issue and people are paying attention now. It could promote people to act on their prejudice,” said Andrew Sancton of Western University.

“It is not surprising it would cause this kind of reaction.”

Matthew Peloza, the riding’s Green candidate, said the niqab is an issue of religious freedom and the ruling Tories are not only using it to look for a distraction, but getting it,

“I look at this as to where it it taking the election debate. We are talking about an issue that affects two people, and not an economic record,” he said, referring to the number of women who’ve decided not take the citizenship oath since the Tories brought in a policy requiring removal of face coverings during the oath.

“It’s a distraction from the real issues,” he said.

— With files by Postmedia Network