6 days Ago By Andrew Duffy
Nepean Conservative candidate Barbara Bal has filed a report with Ottawa police about the alleged destruction and theft of hundreds of her election signs. In an online post , Bal accuses Liberal Party campaign workers of using her marked wooden stakes on signs for Liberal candidate Mark Carney, the party leader who’s contesting his first-ever election in Nepean. Bal offers video evidence that one of her posts — marked with blue on the top and the letters NCA (Nepean Conservative Association) written on the side — bears a Carney sign.
“Pulling down and stealing hundreds of my signs, placing my opponent’s signs on my wooden stakes, and dumping mine in the garbage is not the practice of democracy: It is a deliberate attempt to silence a voice and disrupt the democratic process,” Bal charged. “This is unacceptable, and unethical. Nepean deserves better.
” Neither the Carney campaign nor the president of the Nepean Federal Liberal Association returned requests for comment Friday. Bal, an Ottawa police staff sergeant, has run a spirited campaign despite unexpectedly facing the Liberal party leader as an opponent. She had knocked on doors for two years in anticipation of taking on backbench Liberal MP Chandra Arya.
Arya won the past three elections in Nepean and was expected to again carry the party’s banner, but his candidacy was revoked by the party just days before Carney called a federal election. No public explanation was offered for Arya’s disqualification, but the Globe and Mail has reported it was because of his ties to India. Carney, newly crowned as Liberal leader and in need of a safe seat, opted to run in Nepean.
But Bal has not rolled over in the face of that challenge. The Conservative challenger describes herself as the “local candidate” — she has offered voters an online tour of her favourite Nepean places — while characterizing Carney as someone parachuted into the riding who “expects your vote.” “I’ve earned my place here by living, working and raising my family in this community,” Bal said in a video message posted on X, formerly Twitter .
She lives in Nepean, while Carney lives in Rockcliffe. Bal has also sought to define herself in sharp contrast to Carney, the former Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor educated at Harvard and Oxford universities. “Unlike my opponent, I have never started at the top,” she said.
“Like most Nepean residents, I worked my way up through hard work, perseverance and service to my community and country.” Bal grew up on a dairy farm in southern Ontario, the oldest of 10 children. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English and sociology from Hamilton’s Redeemer University and an MBA from the Royal Military College of Canada.
She spent 10 years as a field officer in the Royal Canadian Artillery reserve while launching her career as a police officer. A decorated staff sergeant with the Ottawa Police Service , Bal has worked as a patrol supervisor, recruiting officer and criminal investigator. In 2015, she settled a human rights complaint against the police service , which triggered a force-wide gender audit that found women were disadvantaged by maternity leaves and less likely to be promoted.
During her door-to-door canvassing, Bal said, she has frequently met Nepean voters worried about their job security as public servants. “Many have been notified that their jobs are under review,” she said in an online post . “I feel deeply for those workers and their families that face this uncertainty.
” The federal public service grew by 43 per cent during the past nine years of Liberal government . A federal spending review has raised the possibility of job redeployments, attrition and layoffs. Bal denounced the bloated bureaucracy as a source of waste and government debt.
She said a Conservative government would reduce the size of the public service through a strategic approach to attrition, not through layoffs. Every year, about 17,000 public servants retire or leave their jobs, she noted. “Instead of automatically replacing them in their existing positions, their funding and resource packages will be strategically re-allocated to areas that need them the most, improving efficiency and better meeting the needs of the public,” Bal said.
A Conservative government, she vowed, will adopt “practical, work-from-home solutions” to the issues raised by an inflated public service. “We want an efficient public service where our workers are valued and supported,” Bal said. “This ensures taxpayers get value for their money instead of wasteful spending on big bureaucracy.
” Bal said Canadians were among the most taxed people on Earth and promised that the Conservatives would offer “smart, targeted tax relief” by removing the GST on new homes of up to $1.3 million and by eliminating the federal sales tax on Canadian-made new cars. Bal is using meet-and-greets in private homes to spread her campaign message.
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