Police rescued Joe Oliver from a locked car this afternoon after staffers left the Canadian Finance Minister unattended for three hours.
“I’d thought I would only be gone for 10 minutes max,” said a panicked staffer Tayler Kaye who was going to purchase some mentos for the minister with another member of Oliver’s staff. “But then I lost track of time and we decided to have lunch. We just plain forgot about Minister Oliver in the backseat. I feel terrible.”
The 74 year old minister, who was slated to speak at the Economic Club of Canada, was found dehydrated, but alive after a passerby in the parking lot noticed Oliver trapped in the back seat and called police.
When police arrived, they had to smash the rear passenger door window to extricate Canada’s 38th Minister of Finance.
“We’re glad we got there in time,” said York Regional Police Sergeant Padma Surendra. “All he had in there was a bunch of files on oil sands subsidies and the Consumer Price Index, which provides very little protection from this heat.”
While police are not pressing charges, they reminded the public about the hazards of leaving Cabinet Ministers unattended in hot cars, shopping malls or anywhere for that matter.
