Canadian politician sparks anger with photo of his wife shovelling snow after a 12-hour hospital shift

‘What was this guy doing?’, one respondent writes on Twitter.

Reyes shared the above photo of his wife and sparked backlash (snow)

A husband is facing backlash after posting a seemingly innocent photo of his wife shovelling snow in their driveway.

In a tweet on 8 January, Canadian politician, Jon Reyes, shared a photo of his wife, Cynthia, digging through deep snowfall outside their home.

“Even after a 12 hour night shift at the hospital last night, my wife still has the energy to shovel the driveway,” the Manitoba cabinet minister wrote in the Twitter post. “God bless her and all our frontliners. Time to make her some breakfast.”

The post has been retweeted 24.3k times so far but the Internet isn’t happy with most Twitter users condemning Reyes for not clearing the driveway himself.

“Why didn’t YOU do it?,” one respondent wrote. “And if you legitimately cannot for some reason, why don’t you pay someone to do it for you so she can come home to a clean driveway and go straight to bed? What is wrong with you?"

Other comments claimed that Reyes could have been shovelling the snow while his wife was working. “You were up at 2:45 am watching tennis while your wife was working a 12 hr shift at a hospital during a pandemic?” one user wrote, along with a photo of a tweet that Reyes had posted that same day about tennis.

“Then you took a picture of her shovelling your driveway from the warmth of your home?,” the post continued. “Good luck dude. I’ve cut people out of my life for a lot less than this.”

“I mean, what was this guy doing during her 12 hour shift that she came home to this and still had to do it?!,” another wrote.

When Cynthia retweeted her husband’s post, some Twitter users claimed that Reyes made her create a Twitter account to “defend” him.

“All I wanted to do was shovel!” Cynthia wrote in response to the post.

On the opposite side of the coin, some Twitter users claimed that Reyes was trying to show how much he cares for his wife in this tweet.

“We have no clue what is going on behind the scenes here,” a comment reads. “This man is actually appreciating his amazing wife and showing it to the world. Do any of you actually know if he didn’t then go out and take over?”

Reyes told CBC, a Canadian news outlet: "My wife is amazing, both at home and at work. I’m eternally grateful for her and everything she does. I love her very much.”

"I’m happy that she is getting the worldwide recognition she deserves, and it serves as a reminder to everyone – especially me today – that we can never do enough to show our gratitude to healthcare workers,” he added.