NDP candidate apologizes for ‘not knowing what Auschwitz is’

She accomplished the near-impossible by making her explanation even worse than the original misdeed: “Well, I didn’t know what Auschwitz was, or I didn’t up until today”, she told the Hamilton Spectator Wednesday.

The public invitation from the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies comes as Johnstone faces strident backlash after her confession.

“It is certainly highly disturbing that someone in her position, not only running for office but more importantly, as a co-chair of a school board, would be ignorant to Auschwitz and the symbolism of that fence”, he said. “It expresses how the curve is normal, natural, and healthy right!”

The comment was spurred by a phenomenon that has come to define the 2015 election: the social media gaffe.

Johnstone said she had “heard about concentration camps” before and accused her opponents of “mud slinging”.

Samuel released a statement September 24 saying he was “shocked” Johnstone didn’t know about Auschwitz.

Johnstone, who is running in the riding of Hamilton West-Ancaster-Dundas, stressed she was sincerely sorry for the remark. In Johnstone’s case, someone had just dug up an embarrassing post from her Facebook page.

Fortunately for the NDP, Johnstone’s timing couldn’t have been better.

Her admission also compelled the Hamilton public school board, of which Johnstone is vice-chair, to issue a formal statement Thursday.

The comment was uncovered by True North Times, an online publication that published it as part of The Nine Days of Scandal, a nine-day rollout of questionable social media posts from federal candidates.

“I think she probably salvages the campaign by relying on the short memories of voters”, Graefe added.

Liberal candidate Filomena Tassi said the “comments are baffling”, but would go no further.

Johnstone isn’t the only Canadian candidate to say insane things on social media.

Under the Ontario school curriculum, the basics of the Holocaust usually crop up around Grade 9.

The Toronto-based centre’s From Compassion to Action visit to Europe in October makes a stop in Auschwitz.

The federal NDP did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Liberal candidate Ala Buzreba dropped out of the race in Alberta’s Calgary Nose Hill after four-year-old tweets surfaced of her telling someone they should have been aborted with a coat hanger.

Soheil Eid, a Conservative hopeful in Joliette, Que., apologized for a Facebook post that compared NDP Leader Tom Mulcair’s comments with those of Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister.