[ryandv]

The implication here then is that a stupefying proportion of Canadians have "lousy critical thinking skills", because even an associate professor of marketing from the article was, quote:

    [...] initially taken in. "I was convinced that this was a real character and had
    a real story that he was trying to tell in his little eight-second videos,"
    he said.

I don't disagree with your assertion; rather, I find it an understatement.