Liberal MP Justin Trudeau poses with his family on his annual Christmas card wearing a fur parka.Adrian Wyld
Greetings misfire: Instead of spreading holiday cheer with his annual family Christmas card, Justin Trudeau has drawn the ire of animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
The junior MP and his family - wife Sophie, and two children, Xavier and Ella-Grace - appear in a photo wearing fur-trimmed parkas and huddling under a fur blanket.
The inside of the card reportedly reads: "During this holiday season, let's celebrate what's most important by surrounding ourselves with love and warmth."
PETA criticized the use of coyote fur as "a lurid way of celebrating peace on Earth," according to the Canadian Press.
Mr. Trudeau defended the family's attire by dissing PETA.
"I think one of the ways of calculating whether you're doing things right or not is looking at who's opposing you and PETA has lost much of any credibility it had in Canada," Trudeau told the Toronto Sun.
"It's a family tradition to know how to keep warm in the winter," he said, invoking the fur-wearing ways of his father, Pierre Trudeau.
The parkas were made by Canada Goose, a Canadian company whose policy says it uses coyote fur "only as absolutely necessary, and exclusively for functional purposes," according to CP.
Now that groups like PETA are widening the scope from ostentatious furs to fur-edged parkas, how many Canadians will be looking over their shoulder this winter for paint-can wielding activists?