Manitoba cabinet minister mocked for tweet of wife shovelling snow after 12-hour hospital shift

A Manitoba cabinet minister is making international headlines over a tweet that features his wife shovelling snow in extremely cold temperatures after a 12-hour overnight shift as a front-line health-care worker.

Jon Reyes, the minister of economic development and jobs, posted the photo, taken from inside his home, with the caption, "Even after a 12 hour night shift at the hospital last night, my wife still has the energy to shovel the driveway."

"God bless her and all our frontliners. Time to make her some breakfast."

Since the tweet was posted on Saturday, Reyes is trending on Twitter, and thousands have retweeted and replied to his post, condemning him for being insensitive.

Meanwhile, TMZ, a Los Angeles-based tabloid, picked up the story and poked fun at the fact that Reyes had been tweeting about tennis the night before, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis.

In a statement issued through his press secretary on Sunday, Reyes declined an interview, but expressed love and appreciation for his wife, Cynthia.

"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," he said in an emailed statement to CBC News.

"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 health-care workers."

Later, Cynthia tweeted for the first time to say, "All I wanted to do was shovel!"

But that wasn't until thousands of people had flooded his notifications. Here are a few:

Epidemiologist Souradet Shaw shared a meme in honour of Reyes ...

... while a former politician in Alberta also expressed some dismay.

The popular Instagram meme account #mbpoli Drag Race, which juxtaposes provincial politics with Rupaul's Drag Race visuals, posted about the tweet on Sunday, pointing to what some see as a wider issue.

Lastly, a parody account was created called @wifejon.