Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s continued appeal to ethnic communities hit a snag last week when he apparently left out Muslims in his greetings to religious communities.
Eid al-Adha began last Friday, and their were public statements of greetings from Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and even Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney. But not from Harper.
The festival – traditionally celebrated by slaughtering a goat or making pilgrimage to Mecca – coincided with the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur. That holiday drew written greetings, via press releases, from Harper as well as Mulcair, Trudeau and Kenney.
The Prime Minister’s Office didn’t reply when asked if there was an oversight, instead claiming Harper “recently extended Eid greetings to Canada’s Muslim community, as he has done for the last several years.”
Spokeswoman Alexis Pavlich, who wrote the PMO email, couldn’t say when or where this happened. She added that the Conservatives were the first to hold annual Eid al-Adha celebrations on the Hill.
