Politician Sparks Backlash After Posting Photo Of Wife Shovelling Snow After 12-Hour Shift
The politician was intending to praise her and other frontline workers, but the post backfired
A politician in Canada sparked a backlash after he posted a photo fo his wife shovelling snow after a 12-hour shift.
Jon Reyes, a cabinet minister in the province of Manitoba, shared a snap of his wife Cynthia hard at work digging through deep snow outside of their home.
Captioning the picture, shared on Saturday (8 January), Jon wrote: "Even after a 12 hour night shift at the hospital last night, my wife still has the energy to shovel the driveway.
"God bless her and all our frontliners. Time to make her some breakfast."
The tweet may have been intended as a tribute to the hard work of Cynthia and other frontline workers, but it didn't go down as intended.
The post went viral - racking up more than 44,000 likes, 27,000 retweets and 17,000 comments - with many people questioning why he was taking pictures of his wife grafting when he could have been out there shovelling the snow for her.
Commenting on the tweet, one person wrote: "Why didn't YOU do it? And if you legitimately cannot for some reason, why don't you pay someone to do it for you so she can come home to a clean driveway and go straight to bed? What is wrong with you?"
Another said: "Why are you watching and not shovelling? This tweet sucks."
After the story made headlines across Canada and further afield, Jon released a statement in which he declared his love for his wife.
He told CBC News: "My wife is amazing, both at home and at work. I'm eternally grateful for her and everything she does. I love her very much.
"I'm happy that she is getting the worldwide recognition she deserves, and it serves as a reminder to everyone - especially me today - that we can never do enough to show our gratitude to health-care workers."
Cynthia also leapt to the defence of her husband.
She said: "What people should know is that I came home from a 12 hour night shift at the hospital, it was a good night which lately as you can imagine hasn't always been the case for myself and my nursing colleagues. As I drove home, it's my time to decompress, I arrived home before anyone was awake, after all it was a Saturday morning.
"As I pulled up to my driveway, I felt energy to shovel the snow that fell all night and into the morning. As many Manitobans and Canadians know, it's a great workout, it allowed me to unwind, it's refreshing after having worn an N95 mask almost the entire night, the weather was mild and it was quiet and peaceful.
"Also, for all the people including us who are concerned about climate change, this is good for the environment, hence we don't need a snow blower! Most importantly, I enjoy it.
"Jon heard me shovelling, it actually woke him up and he was surprised and impressed to see that I had energy after a long shift to do this, so he took a pic, made breakfast and posted, and the rest is embedded in social media history forever!"
She continued: "As a family we share different chores not based on any gender; but mostly on who is available to do it. I'd also like to mention that I dusted off the snow on my daughter's car too that morning, and why not? As that is what our family does.
"We take initiative and do nice things for one another. It's the way we roll, Jon loves cooking and I love shovelling and vice versa, it's really not a big deal!
"We all live busy lives and we have to get things done. We want to teach our kids hard work and responsibility. It's a must in life and that is why we are able to be productive in all of the things that we want to do."
Featured Image Credit: Twitter/Jon ReyesJake Massey