Ontario finance minister resigns after tropical vacation

TORONTO (AP) — The finance minister for Canada’s most populous province has resigned 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 sweater before a fireplace.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Thursday 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.

He’d gone on vacation despite government guidelines urging people to avoid nonessential travel.

The trip has created a political problem for the premier himself.