It looked like she was going on about some environmental issue in her now typical over-the-top way and others were calling her out for it. Then, also two seconds later, I realized that despite looking very similar to the honourable minister’s actual account, this one was a parody. How did I know that? There were a number of finer points that clued me in, but the dead giveaway was it had the phrase “Parody Account” on it.

Now, some people did not cotton on to the fact this was bogus and weighed in on the account’s musings thinking they were indeed coming from the minister. That’s unfortunate… for them. They’d be well-advised to take a second look at posts before hastily responding to them. But this is about one person not embarrassing themselves by mistaking a parody account for the real deal, right?

Not so, according to the Prime Minister’s Office. Gerald Butts, Trudeau’s right-hand man, was clearly upset by the account and when he saw celebrity businessman W. Brett Wilson engaging with it thinking it was real, he waded in. “This just goes to show that even the most discerning Twitter users can fall prey to fake accounts,” Butts posted. “Jack you may want to look into this,” he added — tagging controversial Twitter boss Jack Dorsey.

And it looks like Jack did just that. Or someone at Twitter did. Either that or it was pure coincidence that the account was shut down later that day. An account that was, contrary to Butts’ statement, a clearly defined “parody” account. Not a “fake” account.

Full column: Toronto Sun