Everybody loves Justin Trudeau. He’s good looking. And hip. And cool. The Canadian Prime Minster draws a crowd wherever he goes, even if it’s just a cardboard cutout of him.
But not anymore.
Canada’s diplomats here in the US have been told to stop using cutouts of Trudeau at embassy and consulate events. Why? Maybe because it costs Canadian taxpayers a little bit of money.
But let’s back up a bit.
The cutouts appeared last year at Canada Day events at Canada’s embassy in Washington and its consulate in Atlanta, CNN partner CBC News reports. A cardboard Trudeau popped up just last week at a Canadian tourism booth at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas.
But members of Canada’s Conservative Party did some research and found out that the embassy had ordered up a Trudeau cutout from a Pennsylvania company at a cost of almost $150. They were more than happy to alert the media about this. So Global Affairs Canada, the government entity in charge of the nation’s embassies and consulates, ordered diplomats to cut it out.
Perfect metaphor?
“We are aware of instances where our missions in the United States had decided to purchase and use these cutouts,” a Global Affairs Canada spokesman told CBC News. “The missions have been asked to no longer use these for their events.”
One Conservative lawmaker said that a cutout is “a perfect metaphor” for Trudeau, who is also leader of Canada’s Liberal Party.
“You’ve got the shallow facade, and yet there’s very little in the way of depth or substance there,” he said.
So instead of talking selfies with the cardboard version of the Prime Minister, Trudeau fans will have to wait — and try to get a picture with the real thing.