Joly's budget video begins with tweet from a person who doesn't exist

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly shared a trailer video for next week's federal budget on X, formerly Twitter, on April 5. The video opens with a screenshot of a tweet from “Amy Sminson” that reads, “I wish Budget 2024 had a trailer so Canadians could know what we're getting into.”

However, the office of the minister of Global Affairs admitted in an email to the National Post that the tweet that supposedly requested the video was created for “artistic effect” and did not come from a real person.

Following the “artistic” tweet, the 40-second video shows Joly meeting with and talking to people, backed by an instrumental portion of City of Blinding Lights by U2. The text overlay lists a number of policy points including measures aimed at helping renters and a recently announced school lunch program.

“Amy Sminson” does not appear to be a real person, and the X account used, @ vern019, is a dormant account that says it belongs to Vern Shelton of Florida. It has a handful of tweets and has not posted anything new since 2015. It has 21 followers and is following 79 accounts, including Jessica Alba, Jessica Simpson and Justin Bieber.

In an email, a spokesperson from Joly's office told the National Post, “Evidently, the graphics in the `trailer' were created with the sole intent of artistic effect.” However, the video itself does not make any mention of this fact.

The federal budget is to be delivered on April 16 by Canada's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.