A local bakery is fighting back against online criticism after the Prime Minister made an unscheduled visit Monday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted online that he stopped in at Winnipeg bakery Oh Doughnuts to pick up tasty treats during a three-day Liberal Cabinet Retreat being held in the city until Tuesday.
Oh Doughnuts replied to Trudeau’s online post by thanking the PM, adding “Pretty sure Health Canada would agree everything is okay in moderation.”
Canadians quickly attacked the Prime Minister for his decision to choose a pricier bakery, rather than a fast food joint, such as Tim Hortons.
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Oh Doughnuts promptly replied with a lengthy list of social media posts, explaining the importance of supporting local businesses.
From ingredients, to benefits plans for their employees, Oh Doughnuts listed off the reasons people should visit local stores like bakeries.
Oh Doughnuts owner Amanda Kinden told 680 CJOB the visit from the PM was completely unexpected.
“I just received an email on Sunday for an order, which I responded normally to. They ended up placing an order on the website, so it was sort of out of my hands, and then I got a message from the staff Monday morning that it was for Justin Trudeau,” she said.
“We had no idea he was coming. It was a dark, cold Monday morning, and one of his staffers opened the door and he walked in first.”
Kinden, who called her experience with a wave of Twitter comments “a lot of fun,” said most of the backlash appears to have come from people who went out of their way to find the most expensive doughnuts on the store’s website.
“All of our doughnuts aren’t $47 a dozen. Those are our most elaborate, fancy doughnuts… which they didn’t get. They just got regular variety doughnuts.”
Besides, she said, Trudeau saved 10 per cent by ordering online.
In response to the argument that the Prime Minister should have visited a more affordable shop like a Tim Hortons franchise, Kinden said she’s glad Trudeau chose a local business with a focus on fresh, local quality.
“I think Tim Hortons has done a disservice to doughnuts. No one really knows what a real doughnut is anymore, you know?”
The online backlash comes as the federal government is getting ready to roll out a five-year, multimillion-dollar ad campaign this summer in the hope that teaching the public how Canadian farms operate and what their standards are will get more people to “buy Canadian.”
According to a contract notice posted on Monday morning, Agriculture Canada is looking for a marketing firm to help it launch a “social marketing campaign to better connect Canadians with, and instill pride in, Canada’s food system and its agriculture, food and seafood products.”
The official name for that project is the “Buy Canadian Promotion Campaign,” and it comes amid a major shift in consumer eating habits towards plant-based proteins and questions about the environmental impacts of industrialized global farming.
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