For calling the Sudbury Holiday Inn ‘lavish’ and ‘swanky,’ the Conservative Party of Canada blew up on social media during the weekend — but not in the way they likely wanted to.
In response to the Liberal Party of Canada’s Ontario caucus meetings in Sudbury last week, the Conservatives issued a media release deriding the outing as both “lavish” and “swanky.”
Our sister site Sudbury.com pointed out that the Conservatives were describing a caucus meeting held at the Sudbury Holiday Inn, with the subsequent day’s meeting held at a boardroom at Science North.
The social media backlash was fast and strong, with Holiday Inn becoming one of the top-trending items on X.com (formerly known as Twitter) and Sudbury.com’s original tweet receiving more than one million views.
“When you think Lavish and Swanky, think the Holiday Inn Sudbury,” comedian Stewart Reynolds (a.k.a. Brittlestar) said in a video posted to social media in which he calls the hotel “lavishly swanky.”
“Looking for the perfect getaway? Why not drive almost five hours northwest of Toronto and book our new lavish and swanky package? It’s just a regular room, but with twice as many Keurig coffee pods.”
HOLIDAY INN SUDBURY pic.twitter.com/C8X5chIiIs
— Brittlestar (@brittlestar) August 16, 2024
Parody news outlet The Beaverton tweeted the Sudbury.com story with, “I know we’ve been saying this a lot lately… but did we write this headline and forgot?”
“Just got back from a lavish retreat at Sudbury Holiday Inn,” X.com user Szilvia Borsan (@SzilviaBorsan) posted. “The luxury was suffocating. I nearly drowned in the hot tub, which was overflowing with the salty, chlorinated tears of the conservatives.”
In their original media release, titled “Trudeau’s lavish retreat,” the Conservative Party of Canada also criticized the Prime Minister for not holding a media availability during his Sudbury visit.
The Conservative Party of Canada has not responded to any of Sudbury.com’s follow-up questions, which were sent to Leader Pierre Poilievre media relations director Sebastian Skamski, who issued the initial “lavish” media release, and press secretary Sam Lilly.
Unanswered questions Sudbury.com presented to the Conservatives, and remain unanswered, include:
- What do you consider "lavish" and "swanky," and why do you believe the Liberals' time in Sudbury qualifies?
- How much taxpayer money did Conservatives spend on the 2023 caucus/convention in Quebec City?
- What are the key differences between a Conservative caucus/convention and a Liberal event which has drawn your criticism?
In their media release, the Conservatives blast other “lavish getaways” the Liberals have embarked on, such as a September 2022 caucus meeting in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, which they said cost at least $428,000, and a September 2023 caucus meeting in London, Ontario, which cost $314,552 “that we know about so far.”
The Conservatives have not presented Sudbury.com with any indication as to how these caucus meetings are any different from those the Conservatives host.
Sudbury.com inquired about the Conservatives’ 2023 caucus/convention in Quebec City because the CBC reported in May that a House of Commons bill totalling $426,283 was filed, including $331,699 for travel, $71,408 for accommodations and $21,053 for meals and incidentals.
This isn’t the first time in recent weeks that the Conservatives have received locally-centred criticism on social media. In the aftermath of Poilievre’s tour of Northern Ontario, bot accounts flooded social media with favourable reviews of his appearance in Kirkland Lake. The Conservatives denied involvement, and pointed to similar bot campaigns which supported the Liberals.
The Toronto Metropolitan University’s Social Media Lab later analyzed the posts and concluded it was “likely done by an amateur with limited resources.”
“If this was an attempt at influencing voters in Canada, it’s a crude and amateurish exercise and doesn’t hold a candle to other known influence campaigns,” they added.
“At this time, it’s still unclear who was behind this campaign. Unless X provides additional metadata from its black box, the public might never know who was behind this ‘influence operation’ or their intent.”
As with their response to the “lavish” media release, the Conservative Party of Canada did not respond to a follow-up question from Sudbury.com regarding bot campaigns.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.