A group of Baltic politicians have posted a video Christmas message to Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, telling him that The Baltic nations really are “a thing”.
The lighthearted #BalticThing video was produced in response to a 60 second pop quiz conducted by Canada’s Maclean’s Magazine, where the Canadian PM was asked to name his favourite Baltic nation. He responded, saying “that’s not a thing.”
Baltic Politicians Respond to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
Trudeau’s controversial response to the Maclean’s quiz caused a brief uproar in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on Wednesday with widespread media coverage and questions about the meaning of Trudeau’s statement.
In the video, the Baltic members of EU Parliament highlight some of the region’s achievements and exports for Canada’s new PM including Estonian participation in the creation of Skype and an invitation to watch the Toronto Raptors NBA basketball team, and their star Lithuanian player, Jonas Valanciunas.
Lithuanian MEP, Tony Guoga, said that the Baltic MEP’s were “very concerned Canada’s position is that the Baltics are not important.”
Trudeau clarified his position before a live town hall meeting Wednesday afternoon, telling Maclean’s magazine “that what he meant to say was that choosing one’s favourite Baltic nation should not be at thing”.
According to Trudeau, he used to date a girl from one of the Baltic states and is “well aware that the Baltics exist.” The Prime Minister told Maclean’s that due to the rapid fire format of the questions, he felt that choosing one Baltic state over another could cause problems and tried to answer the question diplomatically.
Justin Trudeau’s 60 Second Rapid Fire Quiz Responses
So this happened. https://t.co/UliZlaEXtB
— Paul Wells (@InklessPW) December 15, 2015
I have to defend Justin here. I thought he meant the Baltic countries weren’t a “thing” in a positive sense—they’re more than a novelty or trivia question. I could be wrong.
Full disclosure: I’m Canadian. But I didn’t vote for him. 🙂
His clarification is ridiculous. He didn’t have a problem stating that he wasn’t going to pick between Nova Scotia and British Columbia 2 or 3 questions before so why wouldn’t he use the same type of response, rather than say that isn’t a thing?