Infrastructure Minister Ray Danyluk was rushed to the hospital on Monday after a severe allergic reaction. Mr. Danyluk believes that a peanut butter pretzel was to blame.

“I had taken a pretzel. Pretzels usually don’t have any peanut butter in them, and I don’t really know what peanut butter tastes like because I have been allergic all my life to nuts”, he said, one day after the incident. “It was a stupid thing on my part.”

The episode caused a scare during a morning caucus meeting. Mr. Danyluk credits Yvonne Fritz, the Minister of Children and Youth Services and a trained nurse, for helping him to remain calm. He was quickly injected with his EpiPen, allowing him to breathe more easily until emergency services arrived.

After being treated by paramedics, Mr. Danyluk was taken to University Hospital, where he received treatment quickly. He was released the same day, after several hours.

This provoked questions of how he was treated so quickly at a time when the Government is being criticised for the long waits in emergency rooms. The Minister denies having received special treatment.

“The hospital was very busy, but any anaphylactic reactions that come into the hospital, they take them very seriously”, he said.