In a feat unheard of in Canadian politics, Jack Layton has for the past several years managed to straddle two jobs as both federal NDP leader and acting deputy mayor of Toronto.

And Lawrence Cannon must really have the Prime Minister’s ear if he can be both Canada’s foreign affairs minister and a political affairs columnist with The Globe and Mail who openly criticizes his boss, Stephen Harper, as a “low-road operator.”

That is if you believe BBC News.

These are two “facts” reported by the venerable news-gathering agency in a story, which has since been corrected, on the rejection of the federal budget by the opposition parties posted on its website Thursday.

With reporting like this, it’s no wonder nobody outside Canada seems to know or care about our petty, domestic political infighting.

Reporter Lee Carter, apparently based in Toronto, describes how the country will likely be plunged into an election this spring after the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois all declared this week they will not support the Conservatives’ budget put forward Tuesday.

A photo of Layton accompanying the story originally contained a caption describing the NDP leader as the “acting deputy mayor of the city of Toronto.” Layton did indeed hold the title of “acting mayor” and “deputy mayor” of Toronto on various occasions during his tenure as a Toronto city councillor in the 80s and 90s but has not been involved in municipal politics since the early 2000s. The caption correctly reports that Layton became leader of the federal NDP in 2003.

Another mistake is the story’s claim that Lawrence Cannon, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, is a political columnist with The Globe and Mail. The story says Cannon believes the Prime Minister’s “autocratic style” is a “turn-off for many Canadians.”

“He’s just not seen to be an honourable leader,” the original version of the story quotes Cannon as saying. “He’s seen to be a low-road operator with very little regard for democracy.”

It seems likely the reporter is confusing Cannon with the Globe’s long-time political columnist Lawrence Martin.

A biography of the reporter, posted on a website paying tribute to Toronto radio station CFNY, says he is a former freelancer for the station, now known as 102.1 The Edge.

“Today I am the eastern Canada correspondent for the BBC,” Carter writes on the site in a 2002 posting. “I am also a freelance news producer for CBC radio working for shows such as World At Six and The World This Weekend.”

Spokespeople for both Layton and Cannon said the two politicians were unavailable to comment.

BBC News has not responded to a query from the Star about the editing process for stories posted online.