In an article in the Canadian media, the President of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association of Canada, Gerry Fedchun, opines as to why Toyota chose to build RAV-4s in Ontario as opposed to the Southeast U.S.

Fedchun said much of that extra money would have been eaten away by higher training costs than are necessary for the Woodstock project.

He said Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment.

"The educational level and the skill level of the people down there is so much lower than it is in Ontario," Fedchun said.

So here we have a person who's sole job responsibility is to shill for the Canadian auto industry. He gloats about how stupid Americans are and on Daily Kos this is taken as gospel proof that Canada's education and health care systems are better than ours.

Let's forget that you can't compare Canada's federal policies to local policies of a single state or two. Let's also forget that most funding of schools and such is local and the Democratic Party is solidly in charge of the Alabama State Legislature (at least prior to the 2004 elections.)

Could there possibly be a less reliable source for information as to why Toyota made their decision? Does anyone really believe that the car companies are hiring illiterate people in the southern U.S.? Wouldn't the fact that they couldn't fill out an employment application be some kind of hint before they were hired?

There's nothing wrong with criticizing policies or people in order to improve your country, but when you're so willing to believe (and broadcast) the belief that your own countrymen are idiots because a foreigner who's job it is to convince people that the U.S. sucks says so, to call this attitude unpatriotic does not seem inappropriate.