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A nakedly ambitious politician

MP bares all in Zoom meeting
Carolyn Grant
Carolyn Grant
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You know we have all relaxed our office attire as many people now work from home, and conduct our meetings on Zoom.

I know people who put a fancy scarf over their pyjamas and present themselves as fully put together. We all know people who put their dress shirt, and maybe even suit coat on, but below the screen they are in jogging pants or even just their underwear.

But a Liberal MP has taken it one step further. He attended a virtual House of Commons meeting in his birthday suit. Yup, stark naked.

The MP in question, one William Amos, from the Quebec riding of Pontiac, was caught by cameras completely naked last week during a Parliamentary video session. Now, luckily he didn’t speak during the meeting and was therefore fortunate enough to not appear on the main screen.

But he was spotted. The Canadian Press grabbed a screenshot and he was indeed bare.

The shot catches him between the Canadian and Quebec flags in his office, so he is a patriotic naked MP.

Now one of his political foes, Claude Debellefeuille of the Bloc Quebecois, just couldn’t keep silent and pretend he didn’t see what he saw so he brought it up as a point of order to the House Speaker.

Here’s the explanation from MP Amos, which he tweeted out.

“I made a really unfortunate mistake today & obviously I’m embarrassed by it. My camera was accidentally left on as I changed into work clothes after going for a jog. I sincerely apologize to all my colleagues in the House. It was an honest mistake + it won’t happen again.”

Now here’s the thing. I don’t know if you’ve seen the screen shot — I can’t show it to you, we’re a family newspaper — but the pose is just a little too artful. As I said before he is between two flags and he is holding what appears to be a cellphone, which is conveniently placed right in front of his er.. .Parliamentary jewels. Like it could not have been placed better to avoid total shame. He’s also standing right by an open window, so anyone across the way could have got an eyeful. And there was no sign of the clothing he had removed or the clothing he claims he was about to don.

Twitter users were not having it.

“Wtaf?? Hey Amos couple of questions..why were you buck naked in the middle of the day when you should have been working? And why did you have your cell phone down by your “frank and beans”??? @bgirl0001

“You need to take off your undies to change into work clothes?

“No exchanging tops first and then bottoms second? You had to take off all of the jog wear first, then get completely nekked before you cld put on your work clothes?

“Riiiigght. Suuurrre that’s the story… tweeted @rachy101

“What are you doing changing during a meeting? The least you could do is pretend you’re paying attention. Manage your time better. @TrishoKnows

I’d say he was multitasking so I don’t know that time management is his issue.

And my favourite:

When we expected transparency from your government, this wasn’t what we meant. @cdnpoliticojnky

But he also received a fair amount of support and understanding, with many people saying it was nothing to lose his career over, and applauding him for owning it.

And many were upset at the breach of privacy that leaking the photo entailed.

And many others shared their own silly mistakes made during these strange times as we all adjust to video conferencing.

All in all it’s just a light moment in a time that is quite dark, so we shall all enjoy a chuckle at the MPs expense and carry on with our Zoom meetings. Not naked though.

Carolyn Grant

About the Author: Carolyn Grant

I have been with the Kimberley Bulletin since 2001 and have enjoyed every moment of it.
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