Sophie Grégoire Trudeau's Shinto prayer: Love, light, peace … and squash
John Bowman | CBC News | Posted: May 24, 2016 3:56 PM | Last Updated: May 24, 2016
Unfortunate spelling error has prime minister's spouse wishing for 'courge' in Japan
A skipped letter can change the meaning of a word in any language, and in French, a missing "a" can change courage to squash, as Sophie Grégoire Trudeau demonstrated in Tokyo on Monday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife visited the Meiji shrine in Tokyo as part of their trip to Japan for the G7 conference.
They were invited to write their wishes on a card and hang them on a wall with hundreds of others.
Radio-Canada's Marc Godbout took a shot of Grégoire Trudeau's prayer card.
While it's clear that she meant to wish for "Courage, Love, Light, Peace," her misspelling changed the first word to "Courge," the French word for squash.
One Montrealer edited the photo to add a visual aide.
"As we say back home," she joked.
The jokes didn't stop there, though.
"Sophie Grégoire Trudeau's prayer to the Japanese gods: Love, light, peace … and a great big dose of vegetables."
"To get this short week off to a good start, a message from our first lady to the god of gourds."
"It's fashionable to ask the gods for a squash. Everyone knows that!"
"Only Sophie knows the unsuspected virtues of the squash."
"Poor darling (or, literally, cabbage), I'll give her an 'A' for effort."
"Never has a squash been talked about as much as Sophie's squash."