A nasty tone to the coalition debate in Smithers

The first casualty of the constitutional machinations in Ottawa could be a Nathan Cullen political sign on the outskirts of Smithers.

The Skeena-Bulkley Valley MP was the target of an arson attack in the Bulkley Valley as someone or some group decided that their political message would be one of vandalism.

The aluminum road side sign, while still standing is significantly damaged with black streaks covering over half of the sign, Cullen is of the opinion that the heated debate out of Ottawa was responsible, for what he calls a clear sign of protest and intimidation. The case of the torched political sign has been turned over to the RCMP for further investigation, while the community comes to terms with the nasty turn that this debate has taken in Smithers.

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While passions have become heated over the rhetoric and the nature of the events of Ottawa these days, there is clearly no place in Canada for this kind of behaviour.

It may be indicative of the anger that the debate has stirred, but one would hope that cooler heads will prevail and that this kind of incident will remain rather isolated.

The sign it is said will be replaced shortly and we suspect that the MP for Skeena-Bulkley Valley will be seeking out the temperature of his riding, should he be returning to BC in the near future, one imagines that he will need to try and gain some understanding of the passions from the other side of the debate.

There are a good number of residents of the riding that do not agree with the plans of the coalition and Cullen as the riding's Member of Parliament will have to deal with the fallout of any decision to come.

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He doesn't however need to face this form of intimidation, those that burned his sign on Tuesday clearly are missing the point of democracy, one can make their point with resorting to vandalism or veiled threats.

The mood is clearly getting ugly across the western portion of the nation and the need to calm down the anxieties is clearly there.

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After all, countless highway signs across the nation need not be sacrificed in the name of protest, a simple letter to the MP's will suffice we would think.