B.C. teen asks Justin Trudeau to grad with online prom-posal

When B.C. teenager Kashlee Taylor-Proulx jokingly asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to prom with a social media post, she didn’t expect anyone to see it. Hundreds of likes and shares later, it’s obvious she struck a chord.

“I truly didn’t expect it to get this big,” Taylor-Proulx told Vancity Buzz.

The post began as a way for one friend to cheer up another. Following a difficult break-up Taylor-Proulx was talking to a friend about the upcoming dance.

“I’d just gotten my grad dress before the break-up had happened, and I made a joke to my friend that I should just invite the Prime Minister instead,” Taylor-Proulx told Vancity Buzz. “I was ranting and crying, but when I said that [my friend] just started laughing. So she told me I should hold up a sign and post a picture of myself.”

Everyone share this so I can get @JustinTrudeau as my prom date. #prom #trudeauforprom2016 pic.twitter.com/vbKjifgaQc

— Kashlee T-P (@itsKashlee) November 20, 2015

Hopping online a few hours later, she was surprised at the response.

“I think it only had like 100 shares, but at the time that was a big deal,” she says. “I only thought my friend would see it and think it was stupid, but people all over the country were sharing the picture.”

The response has been mixed, but according to Taylor-Proulx that hasn’t changed how she feels about the whole thing.

“It either goes two ways. There are the people that love it and understand it’s a joke and think it’s hilarious,” she says. “Or they think it’s really weird, and they don’t agree with it at all. But again, I only thought my friends and people in my friend group would see it.”

Taylor-Proulx understands the Prime Minister’s busy schedule will likely prevent him from picking her up in a rented limousine, corsage and Goo Goo Dolls mix-tape in hand, but she says that wasn’t the intention.

“It’s fun to dream about it. I’d love to get a phone call or an email from him, but he’s the Prime Minister after all,” she says.

But if he does show up?

“That would be so cool! That would be amazing. I think it would be hilarious to be able to look back at pictures when I’m older and say I brought the Prime Minister,” she says.

Taylor-Proulx adds that if Trudeau were to show up, she would want him to show up for the sake of her classmates. As part of a graduating class of 37 students at Beattie School of  Arts, she says many of her colleagues are interested in politics, and the chance for encouragement from the PM himself would be an undeniable experience.

“A lot of teenagers enjoy learning about politics, and pay attention, but they don’t know a lot about it,” she says. “They don’t have a lot of good examples for it, but I feel like if he didn’t come, even just for the graduation ceremony, not only would he maybe be gaining future voters, but [he’d be] enlightening my peers on what being a Prime Minister is all about.”