Oceania’s Ministry of Information can’t help but congratulate the Canadian Green Party on its innovative means of keeping pace with the current party line on cups. In the past, it was seen as virtuous to use biodegradable disposable cups. Now disposable cups are wrongthink. All units must carry reusable cups with them everywhere they go along with their reusable bags and Soylent Green.

But since the leadership naturally enjoys special privileges, we’ll just photoshop its cups away.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May was holding a disposable coffee cup in a photo on the party’s website that was later altered to show her holding a reusable cup with a metal straw, contrary to her party’s earlier claims.

A party spokesperson previously told the National Post that May had been holding a reusable cup, and the image had been photoshopped simply to include another reusable cup, one bearing the Green Party logo. At the time, the spokesperson said the party was unable to provide the Post with a copy of the original photo.

But the Post has obtained the original photo from internet archives, which shows May holding a single-use, disposable cup. The cup was biodegradable, however — it was produced by Eco-Products, a manufacturer of compostable dishes and containers.

In a statement, May said she was not aware the image had been altered, and she had nothing to hide. “I was completely shocked to find that the party had photoshopped an image of me from last year’s Sidney Street Market,” she said.

“My personal daily practice is to avoid single use plastic items 100% of the time. I never drink from plastic water bottles. I always carry my own reusable coffee cup. I carry my own bamboo utensils. I walk the talk every day. I hope that despite this misstep by well-meaning party staff (who hoped to brand the image with our logo), people can believe that in the original photo there is nothing I would have hidden.”

The party did not explain why it had previously claimed the original cup was reusable

The second coming of the Khmer Rogue will even be better than the first. And when the survivors crawl out of their holes and caves, missing fingers and eyes, a child will discover a disposable cup and straw, and weep.