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Trudeau Minister Mocked After Promoting Puffins On World Penguin Day

REUTERS/Ilya Naymushin/File Photo

David Krayden Ottawa Bureau Chief
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Canada’s Liberal government, which has been promoting the legalization of marijuana all month, can’t seem to tell a penguin from a puffin, leading one wiseacre on Twitter to quip, “On what are you puffin?”

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna was trying to capitalize on World Penguin Day Tuesday so she tweeted a message from the minister along with what she thought was an attached video of some lovable penguins enjoying their natural habitat.

But those weren’t penguins: they were puffins, a seabird that is a common sight along Canada’s Pacific and Atlantic coastlines. You won’t find any puffins living at the South pole — but you will find penguins, which is what McKenna was trying to show.

The minister ignited a Twitter-storm with her mistake.

“You know puffins aren’t penguins, right?” queried one incredulous viewer.

“On what are you puffin?” demanded someone else.

Not only do puffins and penguins not live in the same parts of the world, they don’t really look like the same bird, with the exception of their color.

McKenna, or one of her staffers, must have been reading the social media response, because the error — which was first pointed out by the National Post — was corrected in about 30 minutes. Up went a second tweet, this time accompanied by a video of penguins, not puffins.

“Oops! Let’s try this again,” she wrote.