A Canadian radio station is facing criticism over its latest giveaway — a mail order bride.

The Bear 100.3 FM in Edmonton, Alberta, recently began promoting its “Win a Wife” contest, giving one lucky winner “potential holy matrimony with a hot foreign chick.”

The winner will receive airfare to Russia, along with a 13 night hotel stay and $500 to “meet the lucky lady.”

The station, which features a “Bear Babe of the Day” on its website, drew the attention of Alberta’s employment and immigration minister, Thomas Lukaszuk, who severed all advertising ties with the station, according to Canoe.ca.

Lukaszuk said that being the father of two daughters especially turned him off to the idea of a “win a wife” contest, adding, “I believe that it would be inappropriate to be spending taxpayers money on that radio station and advertising government programs while they’re running such promotions.”

The Bear’s brand director, Rob Vavrek, said the promotion was no worse than reality TV shows like the Bachelor, and that the contest is through mail order bride company Volga Girl, which Vavrek claims is “serious and renowned.”

Volga Girl describes itself as “an integrity-based American bride agency providing a wide range of services to those men who are interested in finding a compatible Russian bride.”

Vavrek says that information provided in the winning contestant’s application will be used by Volga to match the winner with a compatible and consenting Russian woman.

Lukaszuk, however, questions the motivations, saying that the women “are driven into a position of desperation by prevailing economic conditions or by criminal elements” and that they may not be in a typical “position of free choice.”

“I think [mail order brides is] a phenomena that as elected democratic governments of the west, we should be curtailing it in any way we can and not encouraging it,” he added.

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