Canadian diplomatic staff given bizarre Justin Trudeau order to end ‘fake selfies’

DIPLOMATIC workers have been told to stop taking their ridiculously good looking prime minister’s image in vain.

Life size cardboard cut-outs of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have proven a hit with selfie-hunters at diplomatic events. Picture: Supplied

CANADIAN diplomatic staff have been ordered to stop taking their ridiculously good looking prime minister’s image in vain.

Life-size cardboard cut-outs of Justin Trudeau have regularly been used at Canadian promotional events in the US to attract visitors, who are encouraged to snap selfies with them.

The cut-outs proved a hit at Canada Day events at the Washington embassy last year and at the Canadian tourism booth at the South by Southwest Arts festival in Austin Texas.

But this week Conservative Party researchers put an end to that little avenue of fun after leaking expenses relating to online purchases of the images.

“We are aware of instances where our missions in the United States had decided to purchase and use these cut-outs,” department spokesman Michael O’Shaughnessy said in an email to Canadian news service CBC.

“The missions have been asked to no longer use these for their events.”

Documents obtained under the Canadian equivalent of the Freedom of Information Act show a Trudeau cut-out was rush-ordered by the embassy last June from an online firm based in Pensylvannia for US$147.79 (AUD192.61), including shipping.

“I think this will be a hoot and extremely popular and go well with our Snapchat filter,” embassy senior events production manager Anna Gibbs wrote in an email released this week, adding it would likely generate “some serious selfie action”.

Others saw the whole concept as tacky. “It just doesn’t seem very prime ministerial”, one colleague warned, the documents show.

But the order got a green light after it was noted that the US embassy in Ottawa had used a Barack Obama cut-out.

HOT YOUNG JUSTIN TRUDEAU SENDS INTERNET INTO FRENZY

Canadian embassy staff have been told to stop exploiting their prime minister's good looks for fake selfies. Picture: Instagram

Cardboard Cutout Caper Crashes: gov't bans use of life-sized Trudeau images, ending fake-selfies https://t.co/a6iTAMBvJl #cdnfoi cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/QfTaAr8n2G

— Dean Beeby (@DeanBeeby) March 20, 2017

Several firms in Canada and the United States sell cut-outs of famous people, drawing on an in-house inventory of electronic images. Some allow customers to send in a personal image to be transferred to cardboard.

Global Affairs Canada has reportedly been bombarded with questions about the number, cost and locations of Trudeau cut-outs purchased by the department — as well as the newly imposed ban — but has yet to issue a statement.

Conservative party spokesman John Brassard slammed the practice, declaring that the “Canadian brand is much more than the prime minister”.

“A life-size, two-dimensional cut-out is probably a perfect metaphor for everything that Justin Trudeau represents,” Mr Brassard said.

“You’ve got the shallow facade, and yet there’s very little in the way of depth or substance there.”

A cardboard cutout of PM Justin Trudeau was nixed by Global Affairs Canada - is it a fun way to promote Canada or inappropriate? pic.twitter.com/NnYTFKUNE8

— Breakfast Television (@BTtoronto) March 21, 2017

Now this little avenue of enjoyment has been scrapped after Conservative Party members called the practice ‘inappropriate’. Picture: Twitter