He preached water and drank wine – now a senior Canadian politician has lost his job because of a bold lie!
Ontario Treasury Secretary Rod Phillips, 55, resigned Thursday after his secret Caribbean vacation was exposed. And in an extremely embarrassing way …
The unbelievable case: Phillips flew to the Caribbean island of St. Barts on December 13th. But he pretended to everyone that he – as a shining example for his compatriots – stayed at home over the holidays in order to master the corona pandemic. After all, politicians and authorities had called on the Canadian population to refrain from unnecessary travel.
Phillips had thought of almost everything: At Christmas he posted a video on his Twitter account showing him in a thick sweater in front of a fireplace. Next to him a glass of eggnog, a gingerbread house and a small Christmas tree. But he had apparently recorded his cozy Christmas speech (“I would like to thank you all for doing everything to protect our particularly vulnerable people”). When he posted the video, he was long in the sun.
A few days before Christmas, Phillips had more or less betrayed himself. The Ontario Liberal Party posted a recording of a Zoom conference on December 16 on Twitter.
In this one too, Phillips wore a sweater and had made an effort to choose the background – this showed his official residence in Ontario. What he hadn’t thought of though: While he was speaking to the other conference participants, the sound of the sea could be heard in the background …
Repentant Phillips on his resignation: “Going away for the holidays was the wrong decision. I apologize in all my form. “Upon arriving at Toronto Airport, Phillips told the waiting reporters,” I made a stupid, stupid mistake. I hope people will acknowledge that I have failed anyone more than myself. “
Job gone – and plenty of time to think: Phillips can now ponder his total failure in the mandatory two-week quarantine.
In addition to himself, Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford is also under a lot of pressure. Because he has meanwhile admitted that he knew about his finance minister’s trip to the Caribbean. Ford stated, “I should have ordered him to move his ass back to Ontario and I didn’t.”
An absolute own goal, especially given his own accusations against returnees of bringing the virus to Ontario. He is also under criticism because Ontario is the slowest to get going when the vaccination campaign starts.
A nationwide lockdown has been in effect in Ontario since last Saturday. On Thursday, the region reported a new high of 3238 new infections.