Chris Collins targeted by angry tweets from Americans confusing him with Trump ally

New Brunswick legislature speaker Chris Collins has never met Congressman Chris Collins, but the Moncton MLA hears regularly from his U.S. namesake's biggest detractors.

"Being called a jerk this morning would be a pretty good example of it," he said Friday after a lawyer in Maryland tweeted at him, assuming his Twitter account, @ChrisCollinsMLA, belonged to the American politician.

It's happened dozens of times since Donald Trump caught fire in the Republican primaries a year ago.

The "other" Chris Collins, @RepChrisCollins, was the first member of Congress to endorse Trump and has been a target of Trump haters ever since.

"It's kind of shocking when I first see it, because someone's attacking me and lashing out at me and calling me names. Then I realize it's an American and the heart rate goes down pretty quick after that."

Tweeting the wrong person

The Maryland lawyer, Darcy Shoop, deleted her tweet seven minutes after Collins let her know she had the wrong politician.

"I was horrified," she said in an interview, "because I called Chris Collins a jerk in my tweet, and this very nice man responded and said, 'You've got the wrong person.'"

The New York Chris Collins is a 67-year-old, three-term politician representing New York State's 27th congressional district, near Buffalo and the U.S. side of Niagara Falls.

He often appears on U.S. television to defend Trump, making him a visible target for the president's critics.

"They're just really angry," said the New Brunswick Chris Collins.

"Nobody said, 'Hey, great move, Chris Collins, on supporting Trump.' They're very anti and they can be very personal."

A lot of angry comments

He added that he doesn't know much about his U.S. namesake, except that he attracts a lot of angry comments.

"People can get mad at me, and they do, for things that I do in New Brunswick politics, and that's something I have to take," the New Brunswick Collins said.

"But I certainly don't want to be tied to the current administration in the United States."

Shoop said she saw the U.S. Collins on CNN Friday morning, defending Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement.

"I did not like anything he said," she said.

"He was extremely partisan and he wasn't answering any of the questions being asked. It angered me and I wanted to say something on Twitter."

Shoop was on her iPad and didn't have her reading glasses on, and "Chris Collins from New Brunswick, a man in a suit, looked kind of like the Chris Collins from the United States," she said.

"If I'd clicked on the picture and brought it up larger, I would have seen it wasn't the same man."

Keeping responses polite

Collins often responds politely to the anti-Collins tweets to clear up the confusion.

In February, a U.S. Twitter user named Bob Dorfman tweeted at Collins that he was "a certifiably mentally ill lap dog. An obscure congressman who got his 5 mins of fame by supporting Trump."

"I'm not the Collins you think I am," Collins tweeted back.

"I'm Canadian!"

"Sorry," Dorfman answered.

"I am not sorry and increasingly happy to be Canadian," responded the New Brunswick Collins, who said his U.S. tormentors "almost always apologize and delete. They're quite good about that."

Collins figures the "MLA" in his Twitter handle should convey that he's not "that" Chris Collins, but said he may need to be more explicit. On Friday, a Canadian Twitter user suggested he add a Canadian maple leaf emoji.

Collins said he'd consider changing his account name to @LiberalChrisCollins to distinguish himself from the U.S. Republican, but as speaker of the legislature, he has to be non-partisan.

Collins said he's not aware if Representative Collins gets angry tweets about New Brunswick issues, or even if he and his staff are aware of the confusion at all.

Representative Collins's spokesperson said he wasn't available for an interview.