Though some anticipated ‘serious selfie action’ with the cutouts, Conservatives said they were ‘a perfect metaphor’ for what the prime minister represented

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

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He is tall and handsome – if perhaps somewhat lacking in depth – and never objects to posing for a selfie.

But months after officials began wheeling him out for official events, Canadian diplomats in the US have been ordered to stop using cardboard cutouts of Justin Trudeau to promote their country.

The life-size replicas were first spotted last summer at a bash organised by the Canadian consulate in Atlanta. Most recently, a two-dimensional Trudeau was on display for the South by Southwest arts festival in Austin, Texas.

“We are aware of instances where our missions in the United States had decided to purchase and use these cutouts,” Michael O’Shaughnessy of Canada’s global affairs department told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “The missions have been asked to no longer use these for their events.”

One Pennsylvania-based company said it had sold between 10 and 20 cutouts of Trudeau since he became prime minister. The same company was contacted by the Canadian embassy in Washington, which, in the lead-up to Canada Day celebrations last year, placed a rush order for a cardboard Trudeau, spending C$147.79 (about US$111), including express delivery.

Emails obtained by Canada’s Conservative party hint at the internal debate that preceded the purchase, with one bureaucrat describing the replica as a “hoot” that would generate “some serious selfie action”. Another was more hesitant, arguing that “it just doesn’t seem very prime ministerial”.

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The embassy went ahead with the order after it was noted that the US embassy in Ottawa had a two-dimensional Barack Obama in its diplomatic arsenal.

While the global affairs department refused to detail why exactly the cutouts had now been banned, the use of Trudeau replicas at diplomatic events was blasted by the opposition Conservatives who said Canada’s brand was about much more than the prime minister.

The cardboard replicas had done well in capturing Trudeau’s likeness, the party added, in a pointed jab at the prime minister. “A life-size, two-dimensional cutout is probably a perfect metaphor for everything that Justin Trudeau represents,” John Brassard, the Conservative party spokesman, told the CBC. “You’ve got the shallow facade, and yet there’s very little in the way of depth or substance there.”