An NDP candidate apologized for an old Facebook comment -- and then created more controversy by admitting she had never heard of Auschwitz.

It wasn’t just the NDP in damage control Wednesday. The gaffe came on the same day a video circulated of a Conservative candidate alluding to a Muslim “agenda” to change Europe with refugees.

Alex Johnstone, who is running for the NDP in the Ontario riding of Hamilton West--Ancaster-Dundas, said sorry after a Facebook comment she left in 2008 resurfaced.

“While never intending any malice, this comment was clearly inappropriate,” she wrote on her Facebook page. “I would like to offer my unreserved apology for this comment.”

The photo showed electrified posts used to electrocute Jews and others who tried to escape the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, where 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, were starved, tortured and murdered.

Under the photo labelled “Auschwitz-Birkenau,” Johnstone had written “Ahhh, the infamous Pollish (sic), phallic, hydro posts…” She then went on to make a joke comparing the post to a curved penis.

Johnstone admitted in an interview with the Hamilton Spectator on Tuesday that she “didn’t know what Auschwitz was … until today.”

Johnstone holds a Master of Social Work degree from McMaster University and serves as a school trustee for the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.

Conservative Joe Daniel, who is running for re-election in the Toronto riding of Don Valley North, was caught on video accusing Saudi Arabia of an “agenda” to “change” Europe by offering to build 200 mosques in Germany for refugees -- an offer some German politicians and high-profile atheist Richard Dawkins have rejected.

“Whereas at the same time Saudi Arabia is putting up money for 200 mosques in Germany, I think the agenda is to move as many Muslims into some of these European countries to change these countries in a major way,” Daniel said in the video, first reported on by The Toronto Star.

Daniel added “that’s something I certainly don’t want to see happening in Canada.”

Daniel’s riding is more than two-thirds immigrants and at least 10 per cent Muslim, according to 2011 National Household Survey data.

Daniel holds a master’s degree in telecommunications engineering from the University of Toronto.

The scandals are just the latest in a series of blunders involving video recordings and social media comments.

The Conservatives have lost at least three candidates to the gaffes, including one who was caught peeing in a coffee mug, one who had recorded prank phone calls and another who made remarks deemed sexist.

The Liberals have lost at least two candidates, including one whose four-year-old tweets referencing abortion with a coat hanger resurfaced, and another over her comments on the safety of marijuana in the presence of children.

Early on in the campaign, a Nova Scotia NDP candidate in Nova Scotia resigned after a Facebook posting that said Israel was engaged in “ethnic cleansing.”

Former Conservative MP Monte Solberg told CTV Power Play Wednesday that the number of candidates getting in trouble is “unbelievable.”

“The parties are going to have to do a better job,” he said.

Solberg also suggested parties “raise standards when it comes to recruiting candidates.”

“It’s unbelievable that a candidate would stand for public office that does not even (have a basic) understanding of one of the most important events in world history,” he added, referring to Johnstone’s ignorance of the Holocaust.

Sarah Bain, a former director of communications with the Liberal Party, disagreed that the problem was in the candidate vetting process.

“If you want to run for office,” she said, “you need to be accountable for what you’ve said in the past.”