NDP MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan thinks Canada's population is 9 million!

Feb 09, 2012

Rathika Sitsabaiesan, a srilankan tamilian by descent, is a member of the Canadian parliament from the New Democratic Party.

She is the first person of Tamil-origin to be elected to the federal parliament in Ottawa, Canada and the first female and first person of colour to be elected as Member of Parliament from the Scarborough—Rouge River.

Scarborough Rouge River has a significant amount of Srilankan Tamil people and it played a vital role in her being elected as a MP.

The youngest Member of Parliament in the Greater Toronto Area inadvertantly made a mistake when she said Canada had 9 million people.

Speaking on human rights abuses in Sri Lanka at the Canadian Human Rights Voice (CHRV) conference last week, the MP declared that Canada is 9 million strong "standing together to fight for human rights."

But according to the 2011 census report released by Statistics Canada on Wednesday, Canada's population has grown to just shy of 33.5 million people, news that may surprise NDP MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan.

Rathika Sitsabaiesan has only been a member of Parliament for 282 days and we can hope that she throughly studies the history of the world in general and Canada in particular to avoid any future mistakes of this kind. This way she can avoid any criticism from the media and fellow canadians.