‘I AM NOT SCOTT MORRISON’
CANADIAN FINDS HIMSELF A DEAD RINGER FOR DEEPLY UNPOPULAR AUSTRALIAN LEADER
For Shawn Mccormick, 54, an Ottawa software executive visiting his son studying in Australia, last week was not an ideal time to be a near perfect lookalike for Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, 51.
There was a bit of a political scandal underway. Bluntly, the Canadian tourist Mccormick looked just like someone many Australians actively hated for his seemingly callous behaviour during a national emergency.
Morrison, leader of the Liberal Party, flew back from a vacation in Hawaii on the weekend after images of him posing for photos on the beach making the shaka “hang loose” hand signal were identified on social media, proving what had been suspected but unconfirmed by his office, that he was on holiday. These images clashed with the national sense of grief and fear over wildfires that have killed two volunteers, caused extensive property loss, and spurred other countries including Canada to send backup firefighters.
Back home and touring a fire station on Monday, the leader known as Scomo said he deeply regrets causing offence. He said he was keeping a promise to his children by taking the holiday but accepted the criticism, which he knew was widespread among Australians.
So did Mccormick. He had been touring the Gold Coast, drawing double takes and lingering glances. One restaurant server even brought out the cook so he would not miss the opportunity to pretend to direct some choice swear words at the prime minister.
This was getting familiar for Mccormick, who first realized his physical similarity to Scomo last year, when he was setting his son Keiran up for the school year there.
That was when Morrison was the treasurer, with a history of opposing same-sex marriage, climate change action, and measures to support asylum seekers, while supporting tax cuts and the coal industry. So when the first person asked Mccormick rather aggressively if he was prime minister, it carried all the tension of a campaign trail confrontation.
“I didn’t even know what a Scomo was,” Mccormick told the National Post.
It took a bit of Googling to put it all together before the realization kicked in. “If more people think I’m him, I’m going to be in trouble,” he said.
These things happen from time to time, and only more so in the age of the selfie. Newspapers still thrill to the “Separated at birth” headline. Justin Trudeau’s massive initial global popularity as a handsome, young national leader encouraged a spate of doppelganger sightings around the world, including Jesse Klaver, a Dutch politician, and Abdul Salam Maftoon, a singer on the Afghan Star variety show.
Ilham Anas, a photographer in Indonesia, found a new line of work as a novelty double after Barack Obama became president in 2009, following in the footsteps of Teresa Barnwell, a dead-ringer for Hillary Clinton.
Donald Trump was memorably recognized in a photo of Dolores Leis Antelo, a woman photographed holding a spade in her field of cabbages in Galicia, Spain.
But Mccormick’s story was not a joke. It was not even particularly funny until Keiran decidedly to proactively solve the problem.
He made his dad a shirt with a picture of Scott Morrison and a massive red line through his face. “I am not Scott Morrison,” it read.
So on went the shirt and out went Mccormick into the tourist areas of the Gold Coast, getting stopped everywhere he went, including for photographs with police officers and a drag queen.
When Keiran put it on social media a few days ago, it went off like a firecracker. Now there are reports all over the internet, and a plan to appear via satellite on a morning talk show.
“I can see the similarities and I can see how people would think I’m him,” Mccormick said. “I don’t think it’s an exact doppelganger.”