London-Fanshawe Liberal candidate Khalil Ramal's signs have been vandalized with slurs such as "arab scum" and "muslim scum."
Ramal fled Lebanon in 1989 and arrived shortly later in Canada.
He tells BlackburnNews.com the vandalism started over the weekend with signs being burned and destroyed, then early Wednesday morning the spray painted sings were spotted by people on their way to work.
"To be honest with you, I got upset a little bit but I sat with myself and thought about it... it's negative, but we have to focus on the bigger picture, Canadian people are bigger than this and Canadian people believe in others," says Ramal.
The candidate says this is not the first time his signs and religion have been targeted, he experienced a similar attack in 2007.
Ramal served as the Liberal MPP for London-Fanshawe from 2003-2011.
As for the timing and why his signs are being targeted, Ramal says there is only one explanation.
"The direction of the campaign changed from focusing on infrastructure, jobs and opportunity for the people of this nation to what people can wear. All these messages from the top down provoke some people or convince some people they have to do something about it, to take their hate and express it on the signs," Ramal tells BlackburnNews.com. "They listen to those messages... I hope it doesn't escalate and they do not hurt someone in the future because of their face or their colour or their background."
Conservative Party Leader Stephen Harper has publicly said his government may consider banning public servants from wearing the niqab.
So far, Ramal's campaign team has collected six signs with racial slurs on them.
The London-Fanshawe candidate says he will continue to campaign and replace the signs that have been vandalized.