Defence minister gets taste of N.L. hospitality
Some federal politicians got a taste of Newfoundland’s storied hospitality when t hey wandered i nto t he wrong home and were invited to stay for refreshments.
Liberal MP Seamus O’Regan says a handful of cabinet ministers were heading to his home in St. John’s earlier this week.
They were in the city for a cabinet retreat with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
O’Regan told a crowd at Memorial University that the ministers were heading to his home when they saw a house with people gathered inside and let themselves in, assuming it was O’Regan’s.
It wasn’t. The jig was up when someone at the house spotted a high-profile minister across the room.
“One of them recognized the minister of national defence, Harjit Sajjan, and went ‘ Oooohhhh,’ ” O’Regan said.
“And Harjit went, ‘ This isn’t Seamus’s house’ and they were like, ‘No, no he’s just four houses down the road. Come in — do you want a drink?’ ”
O’Regan said the surprised homeowners gave the ministers his address and also a sense of what life is like in the province.
“They were floored. You know, I had all these grand designs and places I wanted to take them in order for them to have a feel of what it is to live in Newfoundland and Labrador and they got it! They all walked in and they just got it.”