Provincial police have charged an Orangeville mayoral candidate after he was accused of stealing a lawn sign. On Sunday, mayoral candidate Lisa Post took to social media to share a screenshot of what appears to be surveillance footage of a man, walking away with a campaign sign. In the original post on social media, Post says, “Dumb criminals award: Orangeville politics edition.” “You’d hope the candidate for mayor would know better than to steal my lawn signs from houses with cameras,” she adds, but does not name the accused. On Monday, 77-year-old Nicholas Garisto was charged by Dufferin OPP with mischief and theft under $5,000. Garisto is one of five candidates running in the race for mayor of Orangeville. In an interview with CTV News, Garisto does not deny he was charged but claims the video is not of him. He tells CTV News he was in the area of Elderberry Street, in Orangeville on Sunday morning, delivering fliers. The alleged wrongful removal took place on that same street. “Would I put a flyer in the door and take a sign of the opposition out? I’m not a fool,” Garisto says. Adding, “I don’t have a black jacket,” claiming the man in the video was wearing a black jacket during the incident. He says he was not wearing a black jacket that day. “I respect every candidate that’s running, either for council or mayor or deputy mayor as I’m very familiar with the process,” Garisto says. “It is against the law to remove the sign,” he says, adding, “a lot of my signs have been taken, am I going to blame the opposition? It could’ve been kids.” In response to being asked about Garisto stating the video was not of him, Lisa Post says “I wouldn’t have posted about it if I wasn’t certain about who it was, the video is crystal clear.” Post opted to leave the social media post up but changed the message attached to it. “It’s not my style,” she says, “I reflected on it and thought a softer tone was more appropriate. It really was not my intent to shame anybody, I was frustrated.” “It’s incredibly disappointing, all of us are stepping up to do better for our community, and it’s disappointing when a candidate feels they have to stoop to any kind of dirty politics, whether it’s signs or social media posts, instead of standing on their own merit,” she says. Both Post and Garisto are expected to attend a candidate debate at town hall in Orangeville on Monday night. When asked if she plans to talk to Garisto, Post says, “I have nothing to say, the OPP are handling it based on the evidence that they have and I’m going to show up tonight to our debate with professionalism and integrity.” When CTV News asked Garisto if he plans to speak to Post, he says OPP has instructed him to stay away from her but gave him special clearance to attend the debate. Garisto tells CTV News he plans to clear his name.
