Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may have quipped that Salmon Arm is his favourite spot in Canada, but the city’s mayor wants to make it so.
During his recent tour of Canada, Trudeau was taking questions from students at a school in Winnipeg when he was met with a cheeky query about Pierre Trudeau raising his middle finger at Western Canada.
In response to the child’s question, Justin Trudeau revealed his opinion of our city is much warmer than his father’s.
“Ok first question, what is my favourite spot in Canada?” he quipped. “Salmon Arm, B.C.”
But Trudeau has not actually paid the city a visit.
“We are working on a formal invitation,” says Salmon Arm Mayor Nancy Cooper. “Yes, it is in response to him saying we are his favourite place in Canada. If we’re his favourite city, he should come.”
Cooper says she is hoping to have the prime minster pay Salmon Arm a visit in the summer months, possibly in July as part of the dragon boat festival.
The mayor has met Trudeau before at an event in Vernon, but he didn’t make the trip north to the Shuswap. But Cooper said Trudeau clearly remembers the history-making gesture.
“When I was introduced to him as the mayor of Salmon Arm, he said, ‘Ah, Salmon Arm. That’s where my father taught me to wave with my full hand,'” laughed Cooper, noting Justin was a child on the train with his father at the time of the middle finger incident.
“it would be great if he would come. We’d love to show him around.”
