His confusion about left and right is probably due to the fact that the left-right ideal is based on the politics of the late 1700s, not today. There are three major divisions to modern political movements that have to be considered. All three are independent of each other. You have Economics, Social Issues, and Political Heirarchy to consider.

Economics: Communism - Socialism - Capitalism - Laissez Faire

Social Issues: Progressive [Secular, Pro-Environment, Pro-Labor, Egalitarian, Pacifist] - Conservative [Religious, Pro-Mercantile, Social Darwinists, Militarists]

Political Heirarchy: Anarchy - Democracy - Republic - Confederation/Feudal - One Party - Monarchy/Theocracy - Despotism

As for the fascists, they have typically plotted as moderate economics and social issues, with a right-moderate political heirarchy. They get into trouble because their graphing on the social issues is actually roughly evenly split between left and right extremes: nationalistic, rely on traditional foes of the culture as straw men, which are rightest characteristics socially; pro-labor, pro-middle and lower class, which are leftist characteristics socially. Now if you compare the historic examples of the Third Reich, Imperial Japan and Mussolini's Italy to the current administration of the US as a whole, they share a great deal in common. Where they tend to differ is that the Bush administration greatly favors businessmen and the upper class over the other two classes. They also happen to be limited in their actions by the Senate and the judiciary, so even though they are further to the right on the social spectrum than facists, the Bush administration is forced to be rather leftist on the political spectrum. If the judiciary were loaded in his favor and the Senate Democrats stopped filibustering some of his major issues, you'd have the equivalent of the One Party system you see currently in China. Actually I'd probably prefer a Facist state if that latter possibility came about. It would be the lesser of two very nasty evils.

I disagree with your assessment of Canada as well. They are almost certainly going socialist, as is much of western Europe. Socialist economics is a mix of state run and private businesses, with the private businesses having a significant tax burden. Those nations won't legitmately be communist however, until private businesses become illegal and all aspects of the economy are directly (mis?)managed by the state. Until recently the United States was also going socialist, but the most recent Republican administrations (Bushes and Reagan) have stalled and possibly reversed the momentum in that direction for the immediate future.