The finance minister for Canada's most populous province resigned on Thursday after going on a Caribbean vacation during the pandemic and seemingly trying to hide the fact by sending social media posts showing him in a jumper before a fireplace. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he had accepted Rod Phillips's resignation as minister hours after Phillips returned home from a more than two-week stay on the island of St. Barts despite government guidelines urging people to avoid nonessential travel. “Travelling over the holidays was the wrong decision, and I once again offer my unreserved apology,” Phillips said in a statement confirming his resignation. In a video posted on Twitter on Christmas Eve, the sweater-wearing finance minister was shown drinking eggnog beside a fireplace with a gingerbread house and a little Christmas tree. “I want to thank every one of you for what we are doing to protect our most vulnerable,” Phillips said about Ontarians hunkered down at home because of the pandemic over the Christmas holidays.

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