The B.C. ski resort where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau holidayed with his family after Christmas says it was “disappointing” to see what it describes as misinformation about the vacation shared widely on social media.
In a brief email to CBC News, a representative for RED Mountain Resort said allegations started spreading prior to Trudeau’s arrival and once he did arrive he “was very low-key, respectful, and waited in line like everyone else.”
The prime minister and his family hit the slopes at the resort on Dec. 27, which is a 3½-hour drive from Kelowna near the picturesque mountain town of Rossland in B.C.’s West Kootenay region.
More than a day before a post to a regional Facebook group claimed “a big shot” and his security detail had been cutting into line and otherwise behaving badly at RED Mountain Resort and in Rossland during their trip.
The post, first noticed by moderators on Christmas day, ignited a flood of responses against Trudeau but was in sharp contrast to the experience reported by the resort and other skiers — including the man who acted as Trudeau’s guide on the mountain.
Trudeau’s Christmas vacation at Red Mountain is pissing off the locals<br><br>The Prime Minister is cutting in front of the lines on the ski lifts like he’s the king<br><br>His security detail is also clogging up the hotel and made their experience horrible for the regular customers <a href=”https://t.co/PtIjT7PXKi”>pic.twitter.com/PtIjT7PXKi</a>
—@truckdriverpleb
Sean Smillie, from Rossland and a long-time friend of Justin Trudeau, invited the PM and his family to ski for a week out of the town. He said he was angered by the post.
“What really disturbs me the most about this is the fabrication,” said Smillie about the discrepancy between what actually happened on the mountain and what was discussed online.
Smillie, who met Trudeau in Whistler, B.C., in the 1990s, said he began snowboarding with Trudeau and his children at RED Mountain Resort on Dec. 27 and did so daily until the prime minister flew out of Kelowna on Jan. 2.
“I was with Justin and his family every second of their time on the mountain,” he told CBC News. “The entire family stood in line, as did his security detail. We didn’t budge. We waited. There weren’t really huge lineups and really no crowds over Christmas.”
Other skiers at the resort CBC News spoke to said the same, as did a small minority online in response to the posts.
I went skiing on the afternoon of Christmas day at Red and saw nothing special. It was very quiet and there were no lines.
—@PatrickCummins
I’m no Trudeau fan, but I’ve been at Red the last few days, and there are no lineups
—@outrun86
Rossland Mayor Andy Morel said generally Trudeau was either greeted warmly or just left alone.
“It’s folks that can hide behind their alias names or their names on social media,” he said. “But in reality, when people meet face-to-face … those people usually back away quickly.”
Rossland is in the federal political riding of South Okanagan — West Kootenay, where the Liberal Party of Canada has routinely finished third in federal elections behind NDP and Conservative candidates.
Trudeau timeline
Rumours began circulating on social media about Trudeau taking a winter holiday in Western Canada as early as Dec. 17.
According to the director of communications for the office of the minister of national defence, a CC-144 Challenger jet transporting the prime minister arrived in Kelowna on Dec. 26 at approximately 10:45 a.m. PT. The information aligns with flight logs checked by CBC News.
Smillie said the prime minister arrived in town in the early evening on Boxing Day, after the resort’s slopes had already closed for the day.
The Facebook post shared most widely across social media platforms prior to Trudeau’s arrival was posted in the closed group “Ranting And Raving in the Kootenays.” It was first noticed by moderators on Christmas Day from an account with the username Pork Seymour John.
“I have never been so angry after a day at Red Mountain,” it began. “Some self-important big shot showed up with an entourage of security, and they absolutely ruined the entire experience for everyone else.”
The four-paragraph-long post did not name Trudeau but described and castigated “this guy and his goons” for cutting ahead of families and kids in lift lines and creating problems at a local hotel and restaurant.
“Who shows up to a public mountain with an army of security, messes up the slopes, takes over the hotel, and doesn’t even have the decency to act like a human being?” it reads.
CBC News has been unable to reach the Facebook user behind the post. The PMO has also not responded to questions whether Trudeau’s security detail was at the resort before him.
The post was removed by the moderators of Ranting And Raving in the Kootenays around 8 p.m. PT Christmas Day, but not before it was shared widely across social media platforms and drew a flood of comments.
‘A pile-on of comments’
Reinhard Lengsfeld, one of the moderators of the group, said the page had “a pile-on of comments that had devolved into name-calling and even threatening violence.”
He says he wasn’t able to keep up with moderating them and vetting up to 400 people who applied to get access to the page.
“In the end, we just shut down membership applications,” he said. “That was the only thing we could do. I knew something was up.”
Justin Trudeau’s national popularity plummeted long before he started losing his grip on the Liberal Party. The housing crisis, rampant inflation, parts of his government’s pandemic response, and dissatisfaction with progressive policies around immigration and other issues alienated many Canadians over time.
PM confronted
At the end of the first day of snowboarding — Dec. 27 — Trudeau was approached by a woman who filmed her interaction with Trudeau and shared it online, where it was viewed and further shared and commented on.
In the video, Emily Duggan, who lives in the Slocan Valley near Nelson, about an hour’s drive from Rossland, approaches Trudeau as he’s walking in a parking lot in his snowboarding gear.
After shaking hands, she tells him to “Get the f–k out of B.C. … you suck,” to which the prime minister responds, “Have a wonderful day ma’am.”
Duggan is politically active over how sexuality is taught in schools and behind the group Moms Against the Norm, which advocates for parental rights.
When asked by CBC News, she would not say if she had seen the post that preceded Trudeau being on RED Mountain Resort or whether it informed her decision to speak with him.
The incidents in Rossland unfolded as Canada was waiting to hear if Trudeau would step down as prime minister and leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, which he confirmed on Jan. 6.
‘Proud of our community’
On Jan. 3 Smillie posted a 23-second video of Trudeau speaking into the camera from RED Mountain Resort on a Rossland group page about how well his family was received in the community, how much they enjoyed their trip and what a special place Rossland is to him.
The 23-year-old son of a former prime minister dies in the mountains in Kokanee Glacier Park. Aired Nov. 15, 1998 on CBC’s Sunday Report with reporter Kelly Crowe and host Bill Cameron.
Trudeau’s younger brother Michel had been living in Rossland in 1998 when he died after being swept up in an avalanche while skiing in Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park.
The social media saga comes at the end of Trudeau’s nine years as PM.
It’s a contrast to social media events in B.C. from earlier in his tenure, when he was generally celebrated for photo-bombing beach wedding photos shirtless in Tofino in 2016, posing with grads for photos on Vancouver’s seawall in 2017, and hiking the Grouse Grind in 2019.