He’s dreamy, looks great in a cowboy hat and cares about gun control: he’s my Canadian boyfriend.
Or, at least that’s what a 2018 wall calendar is calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
American publisher Rizzoli has released a cheeky calendar featuring Trudeau just in time for the holidays, but people are divided.
Reviewers on Amazon Canada also have split opinions.
“Awesome!!! So much better than the Stephen Harper calendar from a couple years ago,” wrote one reviewer.
Another seemed less impressed.
“The paper used in this calendar works great for absorbing oil drips under my restoration car.”
Robb Pearlman, associate publisher of Rizzoli, told Global News that the idea for the calendar came to him as he was watching the news.
“Justin came on and I can’t remember what he was talking about, but a sense of calm came over me,” he said. “And I was like, ‘Oh, everyone’s talking about Justin Trudeau!’ It seemed like one of those things: why hasn’t this been done before?”
Pearlman saw the comedic calendar as an opportunity to take a break from the heavy news cycle.
“We needed to take a breather, relax and enjoy our leaders, which we can’t do all the time,” he said.
Pearlman said the “Canadian boyfriend” angle came from the old standby excuse of teens telling their friends that they had a boyfriend or girlfriend from summer camp, but no one could meet them because they lived in Canada.
“It hearkens back to when Jan Brady had George Glass as her imaginary boyfriend,” he said, referring to the middle daughter of the fictional TV family The Brady Bunch.
The popularity of Justin Trudeau has been a success for Rizzoli. Pearlman said the calendar was published offseason, months after their traditional catalog was published, yet retailers made space on their shelves for this one.
The prime minister’s press secretary said they had no comment about the calendar, despite the flattery.
Rizzoli is publishing a book of the same name, slated for release in February 2018.