Politician Dragged for Photo of Wife Shoveling Snow After Long Hospital Shift

A Canadian politician is getting mercilessly torched by people around the world for posting a picture of his wife shoveling snow from their driveway right after she had worked a 12-hour shift as a health care worker.

In Winnipeg, the Canadian city where Jon Reyes and his wife live, it was about minus 20 C (minus 4 F) on Saturday. About 5 centimetres (or 2 inches) of snow fell that day. 

“Even after a 12-hour night shift at the hospital last night, my wife still has the energy to shovel the driveway. God bless her and all our front-liners. Time to make her some breakfast,” Reyes, the Manitoba Minister of Economic Development and Jobs, tweeted on Saturday morning. Reyes’ wife, Cynthia, is pictured wearing a large duvet-esque winter coat while pushing a snow shovel. 

That night, while his wife was presumably working, Reyes had stayed up until about 3 a.m. to watch tennis, according to his Twitter.

As of Monday morning, Reyes’ tweet had been liked 41,000 times—and had 42,000 comments. 

“I’m not sure, but I bet she would’ve preferred to come home to an already shoveled driveway after that 12-hour shift,” tweeted U.S. actress Yvette Nicole Brown.

Other celebrities waded in. 

Some onlookers decided to guess what kind of breakfast Reyes was making for his wife. Maybe Pop-Tarts? 

Others tried to figure out Cynthia’s motives.

“She was making sure an ambulance could get up the driveway because someone was about to have a camera lodged in his rectum,” suggested a Twitter meme account. 

In a rare display of unity across the political spectrum, far-right conservatives also dragged Reyes, but blamed feminism and questioned his manhood.

Even Reyes’ Wikipedia page has been updated to include his latest controversy. 

“On January 8, 2022, Reyes was heavily criticized for posting a photo of his wife shovelling their driveway after she finished a 12-hour shift as a nurse working during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Wikipedia noted. 

In a statement to VICE World News, Reyes said, "My wife is amazing, both at home and at work. I'm eternally grateful for her and everything she does. I love her very much."

"I'm happy that she is getting the worldwide recognition she deserves, and it serves as a reminder to everyone—especially me today—that we can never do enough to show our gratitude to health care workers."

Meanwhile, his wife took to Twitter, too. 

“All I wanted to do was shovel,” she said in her first and only tweet. 

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