American Jason Kenney fields Twitter scorn directed at Canadian Jason Kenney
The Calgary Eyeopener | CBC News | Posted: February 4, 2016 3:53 PM | Last Updated: February 4, 2016
@jasonkenney says he’s often mistaken for the Conservative MP @jkenney
When Conservative MP Jason Kenney says something that gets Canadians hot under the collar — American Jason Kenney hears about it.
That's because the Richmond, Va. man has the Twitter handle @jasonkenney.
The Calgary MP's handle is @jkenney.
So when Canadian Kenney heckled Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan during Question Period this week, American Kenney received some misdirected social media scorn.
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And, not surprisingly, Canadians who realized their mistag — quickly apologized
"The confusion has been happening for a lot longer than social media," said the American Jason Kenney.
"More than a decade ago I got an email from this sweet lady who was asking if I could speak to her church group. I said I was flattered but I was probably the wrong guy because I was quite a few thousand miles away."
The confusion has been happening for a lot longer than social media. - Jason Kenney of Richmond, Va.
American Kenney said the Twitter backlash also picked up just before the 2015 federal election.
"Like everything on the internet, if you don't have anything nice to say you take to Twitter," said Kenney.
- Have you ever received tweets from someone who obviously got the wrong handle? Share your story in the comments section.
American Kenney says the chirping is also sometimes directed at a British man with the handle @jasonkenny — spelled with one fewer "e".
"So there have been times in the past where all of us just tweet back and forth."
And sometimes, Canadian Kenney joins in on the conversation.
"One time we were all like, you know, 'What did you do now?' And we did get a tweet [from him] apologizing for bringing disrepute to the name. So he's been a very good sport about it himself."
American Kenney doesn't plan on ever changing his Twitter handle.
"I got it first. So it's mine."