Stupid and ignorance on the far-right are not American-exclusive...

[Gaffey Duck]

The girl in question is 18.

I was talking with a bunch of people at work while on break, and the subject of our churches came up.

I mention that I attend the local United Church and she says she goes to one of the neo-fundie churches that have been opening in my town over the past few years. (Her father's the minister of her church.)

I then joke that the only thing bad about my church is that George W. Bush is a member of its American equivalent. (The United Church of Canada is a merger of the Congregationalist, Methodist, and more left-leaning Presbyterian churches in Canada. These churches have not merged in the USA, and Bush is a member of the United Methodist Church (although he does not share most of its doctrines), the main Methodist church in the USA.), and she says that Bush kicks ass and all this crap.

I ask her why she likes Bush so much, and she's not able to give me a single reason. (Incidentally, the two others co-workers there include a girl who dislikes Bush because people around her also do and a guy (a good friend of mine actually) who votes the way his mom does and doesn't care one way or the other about Too Stupid to be President.)

My charm bracelet than catches her eye, and as she looks through my charms, I explain to her that there's no way anybody with "NDP" on their bracelet would ever be a Bush supporter.

She then asks me what the NDP is. I tell her that it stands for New Democratic Party, and she still has no idea.

I then give examples of prominent members: namely Jack Layton, Ed Broadbent, Howard Hampton, Bob Rae, and local 2004 candidate Elaine Macdonald, and she had never heard of a single one of these people.

In summary, an 18-year-old English Canadian girl living in a province where the NDP formed government during her life time has never hard of the party or any of its members.

How pathetic is that?

[OnionPatch]

1. Pathetic and disturbing.

I was hoping Canada was observing what was happening here and would take steps to stop the same thing from happening there.

[Gaffey Duck]

2. I doubt she even votes Conservative...

And I think she's one of those people (I've met a few) who think that Jean Chrétien is still our PM.