TORONTO – The finance minister of Canada’s most populous province resigned Thursday after going on holiday to the Caribbean for the pandemic and allegedly sought to hide the fact by sending messages on social media showing him with a sweater in front of a fireplace.
Ontario Prime Minister Doug Ford said he accepted Rod Phillips’ resignation as a minister hours after returning home after a stay of more than two weeks on St. Bartholomew’s Island, even though the third class of government urged others to travel non-essential.
“Travelling during the holidays was the wrong decision, and once back I apologize unreservedly,” Phillips said in confirming his resignation.
In a video posted on Twitter on Christmas Eve, the finance minister dressed in a sweater is shown drinking egg punch near a home with a gingerbread space and a small Christmas tree.
“I need to thank you both for what we’re making our most vulnerable,” Phillips said of ontarioers who were cowering in their homes because of the Christmas pandemic.
But Phillips himself had been enjoying a Caribbean vacation since December 13 on St. Barts, a French island popular with the rich and famous, even though his Twitter account had hinted he was in snowy Ontario.
Opposition parties and fitness officers had called for Phillips to be removed from the cabinet. One party posted a video of a Zoom call featuring Phillips participating, also dressed in a sweater, with a photo of the legislature as a backdrop, but with sounds like waves being heard in the background.
Arriving at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on Thursday, Phillips told him waiting that he had made “a stupid and stupid mistake. “
“I hope other people appreciate the fact that I have not disappointed more than myself,” said Phillips, who faces a mandatory 14-day quarantine for those returning from abroad.
The incident created a political challenge for Ford, who stated Wednesday that he knew Phillips out of the country before making it public, as Ford said he called Phillips “shortly after his arrival” in the Caribbean.
“I said bring you back to Ontario and I didn’t,” Ford said.
Ontario launched a blockade across the province on Saturday and Ford blamed travelers for introducing the new coronavirus into the province. Both the National Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario have continually called on Canadians not to travel abroad through the pandemic.
“This is a devastating blow to the government and for Ford personally because, as he admitted, he knew Phillips in St. Bartholomew’s and did not reproach him and ordered him to return immediately,” said Elson Wiseman, professor of political science at the University. “Ford only did so when news of Phillips’ absence was made public. “
Ford’s government has already been criticized for disrupting vaccination operations during the holidays and for delaying the province’s lockout to Boxing Day.
Ontario set a new case record Thursday with 3,238 cases.
“Ford is suffering from the slow deployment of the vaccine, the slowest in Canada,” Wiseman said.
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