Canada’s Speaker of the House of Commons Anthony Rota will be enjoying a taste of the Campbell River area this holiday break.
North Island-Powell River MP Rachel Blaney presented the speaker with a Christmas gift as she was leaving Ottawa for the holidays. The gift: a bottle of Shelter Point Distillery’s award-winning single malt whiskey. The gift was not just a locally-purchased product from the riding, it was also an invitation for Rota to consider it for his “Speaker’s Selection” whiskey for the year.
Starting in 2003, the Speaker of the House has done a blind tasting of single malts. The whiskey selected by the Speaker gets a distinct label and packaging and is available to all MPs and Senators as a unique and limited edition gift. There have been six Speaker’s Selections, all from the United Kingdom. One Nova Scotia whiskey was included in the blind tasting in the past — Glen Breton — but it was not selected.
“Shelter Point is a great local business who not only win international awards for their product, but they contribute significantly to our community,” said Blaney.
Shelter Point, like other small distilleries in the area, had shifted production to hand sanitizer, and provided it for free to many community groups and agencies.
“I want to take this opportunity to highlight that there are so many local companies and products that we should be proud of, and that benefit our communities far beyond just the products and services that they sell,” said Blaney. “I encourage us all to support them and shop local during the holiday season and always. And the same goes for the House of Commons and federal government.”
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Shelter Point Distillery switches production to sanitizers
marc.kitteringham@campbellrivermirror.com
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