Canadian Candidate Goes Viral After Turning Defaced Campaign Signs Into Hilarious Viral Video

After pouring time and effort into a project, seeing all your hard work disrespected can draw justified anger. But a Canadian woman running for political office decided to turn the lemons life—or, more specifically, vandals—handed her into pitch perfect lemonade.

Lisa Kearns is a former city councilor who vacated her Ward 2 seat to run for mayor of Burlington, Ontario, Canada—a city of about 187,000 people on the western shore of Lake Ontario. Kearns discovered several of her campaign signs featuring her photo had been vandalized over the Canadian Thanksgiving (observed the second Monday of October) long weekend.

But instead of calling for a crackdown on the jokesters, Kearns decided to join in on the joke.

In a video Kearns shared on her social media, the Burlington mayoral candidate stands with two of her defaced signs to give voters information about online voting.

You can see her Facebook post here:

In it, the camera first focuses on a campaign sign where Kearns' front teeth have been blacked out in a typical defacement of a person's smiling face. The camera then pans up to Kearns, who shows that her own teeth have been blackened to match the vandalized sign located on a busy street.

Kearns greets Burlingtonians then cheekily says:

"...you've seen me around town running to be your next mayor."

The scene then shifts to a large yard sign that appears to be in a park or someone's front lawn. On this one, the graffiti artist gave Kearns a unibrow and a mustache.

When the camera pans up, Kearns again sports the same adornments.

Without any change in her delivery, Kearns lets voters know how they can get free information about online voting, an option in Burlington, Ontario.

Kearns told The Hamilton Spectator:

"We know that a minority of signs in an election campaign can be vandalized, stolen or damaged. And we know that this is unacceptable on every front."

"We just did what felt natural and added some levity and … some humanity at a time when we were seeing low voter turnout."

People loved how Kearns handled the situation with humor instead of anger or reprisals.

reply to @lisakearnsward2/Instagram

reply to Lisa Kearns/Facebook

reply to Lisa Kearns/Facebook

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reply to Lisa Kearns/Facebook

reply to Lisa Kearns/Facebook

reply to @lisakearnsward2/Instagram

reply to Lisa Kearns/Facebook

reply to Lisa Kearns/Facebook

reply to @lisakearnsward2/Instagram

reply to Lisa Kearns/Facebook

reply to Lisa Kearns/Facebook

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reply to Lisa Kearns/Facebook

While Kearns took the vandalism in stride, according to Inside Halton, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) reminded residents that "damaging, removing, defacing, stealing or interfering with election signs" could lead to possible criminal charges.

CNN picked up the story, giving Kearns a chance to share her experience after choosing to handle the attacks on her campaign with humor.

You can see CNN's coverage here:

Kearns created another tongue-in-cheek video to address any concerns about her credentials.

In-person municipal voting is today, October 26, in Burlington, Ontario, with results of the mayor's race expected shortly after.