Look, we get it. Math is hard. Most of us no longer remember trigonometry, algebra or quadratic equations. But we all remember addition and subtraction.

All of us that is, except Andrew Scheer.

In an attempt to make a point about taxation, Scheer misused and miscited information from the Fraser Institute. Basically, he lied.

Here’s his tweet:

Why is Justin Trudeau punishing Canadians’ success? According to @FraserInstitute, Canadian families earned an extra 3.3% last year, but taxes were up by 3.1%. Justin Trudeau’s Liberals taxed away 94 cents out of every extra dollar earned. Canadians are missing out. https://t.co/3B0aI09BPw — Andrew Scheer (@AndrewScheer) June 21, 2018

Economists, repoters and anyone who understands math were quick to point our Scheer’s error.

This is completely and utterly false for two reasons:

1. The Fraser Report looks at all levels of government, not federal.

2. The Fraser Report itself pegs the figure at 41%. Not 94%. https://t.co/SjmccOgDqz — Mike P. Moffatt ???? (@MikePMoffatt) June 21, 2018

Come on, the PM in waiting is still tweeting out this nonsense? Again: The 3.3% is a percentage of the previous year’s income. The 3.1% is a percentage of the previous year’s taxes. That suggests the percentage of income that was taxed actually went down very slightly. https://t.co/yFbv0sdHat — Adam Radwanski (@aradwanski) June 21, 2018

The only two possibilities are that the Official Opposition leader doesn’t understand this very basic math, or (likelier) that he’s deliberately spreading nonsense figuring his target audience is too stupid or indifferent to care. Neither is good. — Adam Radwanski (@aradwanski) June 21, 2018

I’m staring at this tweet for a long time and trying to figure out if Scheer is intentionally trying to be deceptive or if he just doesn’t understand how basic math works. I mean, I make silly math errors all the time but this tweet was 5.5 hours ago and it’s still up. https://t.co/nkHCI2Dldn — WheatNOil (@WheatNOil) June 21, 2018



As of writing this story, Scheer still has not issued a correction.