NDP MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan’s population math may need fine-tuning

It appears that rookie NDP MP Rathika Sitsabaiesan doesn't know what the population of Canada is.

Or at least she didn't until last week.

Speaking at a Canadian Human Rights Voice (CHRV) conference on "Human Rights Abuses in Sri Lanka" last Wednesday, the Young MP from Ontario took to the podium to talk about her struggles as a young Tamil child in Sri Lanka.

She went on to talk about how Canadians can help fight for human rights, not just in Sri Lanka, but around the world.

"Tamils united, in Canada we're about 300,000 strong," she said.

"But Canadians united in Canada we're a huge force to be reckond with. We're almost 9 million if I remember the number correctly. That's 9 million Canadians strong. Standing together to fight for human rights."

In the full-length YouTube video, we see Sitsabaiesan interrupted by a conference attendee who informs her that the population of Canada is 33 million.

"You know what I was thinking of," a clearly flustered Sitsabiesan responded.

"I was thinking of the people that came out and voted in the past election."

For the record, 14.8 million ballots were cast in the last election and the population of Canada is projected to be 34.7 million.