Vancouver mayoral candidate roasted for mistaking gardening tool for machetes

A Vancouver Park Board commissioner is facing snarky backlash for tweeting about public safety issues because of how easy it is to buy a machete at the dollar store. But, Twitter users were quick to point out that the photo he shared is a gardening tool.

John Coupar, who is also running for mayor of Vancouver, is being called a “chucklehead” after he called out a local dollar store for selling machetes.

“Machetes on open store shelves at Clark and Hastings not a good look,” his quote tweet reads.

Machetes on open store shelves at Clark and Hastings not a good look @DollaramaCad @GlobalBC @MikeSmythNews https://t.co/NWvWn07kRx

— John Coupar (@JohnCCoupar) June 6, 2022

But what he may not have noticed was it was actually pictures of pruning saws used to cut tree branches.

The wrath of Twitter came down from the clear mistake.

“That’s a pruning saw. You’ve never done yard work in your life, have you John?” one person tweeted.

“NPA: No Pruning Anymore?” another person asked the Non-Partisan Association candidate.

Former Vancouver School Board Chair Patti Bacchus also joined the chorus of replies, writing, “You’ll pry my pruning saw out of my gardening-gloved hands John.”

You’ll pry my pruning saw out of my gardening-gloved hands John. Seriously dude, ridiculous flex.

— Patti Bacchus (@pattibacchus) June 7, 2022

Apart from the mocking comments, people accused the NPA candidate of stoking fears of public safety.

ABC Vancouver Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung says this kind of comment doesn’t do anything to address the issue.

“It was reactionary. I think people are obviously nervous about some of the … serious random attacks that we’re seeing in the city. But sometimes you need to take a moment and look at what something really is,” she told CityNews. “[The tweet was] a bit reactionary, to maybe suggest that we should ban the sale of all gardening implements off the bat.”

Kirby-Yung, who once was a park board commissioner, suggests putting certain items behind glass isn’t going to address the root cause of weapon assaults.

Vancouver police have previously reported stranger attacks are happening at a rate of around four a day.

In an email statement to CityNews, Sgt. Steve Addison said, “Any store-bought item could be used as a weapon, depending on context and how it is used.”

Coupar responds to backlash

Meanwhile, Coupar is responding to the backlash he’s been facing, saying “people react in Vancouver to any kind of tweet one way or the other.”

However, he tells CityNews he was trying to highlight an issue that was brought to him by a concerned resident.

“The resident contacted me and said she had been in the store and she had talked to the staff and the staff were quite concerned by the open-shelf sale of this item,” Coupar recalled. “So she spoke to the store manager and the store manager agreed with her and said he was concerned and that his staff had been threatened in the past.”

Coupar says his suggestion is to put these kind of items behind glass or some other safety system.

He points to a recent incident in Vancouver when a knife was used to attack people at a gas station, saying “a similar type of item” was used. Police have said the suspect in this incident is alleged to have used a knife and a machete.

Coupar says his intention was for the retailer to think about what the “consequences might be, especially in a dollar store that isn’t really known for selling garden tools or machetes or trimmers.”

“I think that’s what I was trying to get at, just the public safety of people was a concern,” he said Tuesday.

When asked whether he believes all types of blades should be kept off store shelves in Vancouver, Coupar says retailers “have to be reasonable.”

“I’m not talking about banning items or implements or anything, but in a situation where we’ve had four random stranger attacks a day in our city, I think responsible retailers might want to just think about what they’re selling and where they might place it in their store. That’s all I was trying to say.”

The Dollarama says it won’t be making changes to the availability of pruning saw.

-With files from Peter Wagner