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HALIFAX — A provincial politician in Nova Scotia has deleted a photo of himself sitting on the lap of a blackface Christmas character from his Twitter account after taking heat for the posting.

Liberal member Joachim Stroink tweeted the picture of himself and his wife at a Dutch Christmas event Sunday in Halifax, which he said he has attended for several years to mark the start of the holiday season.

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The picture showed a smiling Stroink sitting on the lap of Zwarte Piet, or “Black Pete,” a Dutch character who has been at the centre of debate in the Netherlands.

“Giving some love to Zwarte Piet and Sinterklass (sic) thank you to the Dutch Community for putting this event on,” Stroink tweeted.

A traditional song refers to the character as a “servant” to the elderly St. Nicholas, but in recent years those references have largely been replaced with the idea that he is black from chimney soot as he scrambles down to deliver toys and sweets for children who leave their shoes out overnight.