The Canadian Press
OTTAWA—Once a year, the fools on the Hill let their hair down and this April 1, NDP Leader Tom Mulcair appeared poised to do the real thing.
Mulcair posted a photo on the social media site Twitter showing his signature bearded face covered in shaving cream, a straight razor hovering over the lather.
“Why not?” said the caption, capturing the sense of fatalism in the air as Mulcair faces a leadership review at next week’s NDP convention in Edmonton.
Mulcair wasn’t alone in his tomfoolery on Parliament Hill.
Rona Ambrose, the interim leader of the Conservative party, posted a fake Airbnb ad offering to rent out Stornoway, the official residence of the Opposition leader.
And Environment Minister Catherine McKenna shared a phoney announcement in her name saying grazing goats would now crop Parliament’s lawns as part of the Liberal government’s green plan.
April Fools’ Day pranks, always a peril for the news business, have caught out political reporters in the past.
But some news outlets also like to get in on the fun themselves.
The Huffington Post planted a fake story on its website touting a new Justin Trudeau designer line: “a collection of pre-rolled white shirts designed by the prime minister himself for the ‘modern man who wears his feminism on his sleeve’.”
