CIRCLE JERKS...

... have no reason to look further than two minutes into the future.
Tony Clement's ability to step in piles of self-made doo-doo while commenting on the floral fragrance is a nice skill set.
Emasculating StatsCan by eliminating the mandatory long-form census -- without any form of debate, discussion or dialogue among users or members of non-tin foil set -- can only be described as short-sighted. First thing, Clement's new plan will cost $30-million more in its voluntary version. Secondly, other jurisdictions, most notably the U.S., went through a similar exercise and discovered that the end result wasn't just more costly, but very unreliable. Ho-hum. There's no evidence that can move faith-based decider Harper.
Here to prove Harper's case of a self-absorbed whiner looking out for No. 1 is the CONs' own version of Sgt. Schultz, MP David Tilson.
Yes, Stephen Harper, the suddenly scared of his own shadow so-called leader of this dumb revolution, is happy to let others do the talking. Who said he hasn't evolved?
Although let's be positively clear on this -- besides the private polling industry that would like to pick up the pieces from all the suddenly now underserved private and public groups thanks to a gutted national census -- Harper is the main grumbler who wanted this done.
The likes of Tilson only provide a bit of comedic effect.

SITH HAPPENS...

... Another day, another bumbling CON government lie exposed.
Gone is the argument that StatsCan mandarins actually supported Stephen Harper's decision to hamper religious groups, social planners, social service providers, chamber of commerces, provincial and municipal governments and the people who paint bedrooms.
The faux strawman of invasion of privacy has been shown to be as hollow as Stephen Harper's soul, and the unabashed lie about thousands of complaints has been proven to be shred-ible. Nor the ribald fib that a totally voluntary project could replicate one that included a mandatory form -- like the current decree from the government for Canada's farmers.
While the census may be a regular target for libertarians and grumblers from across the political spectrum, it has been the same minor inconvenience that a dozen Prime Ministers from the turn of the previous century managed to support for the good of the country.
Unfortunately, the current job-holder gives a rats' ass for that institution.

CLARITY...

...is never an easy thing with Stephen Harper's government. There'll be no recession meant "the recession is here but we're not responsible." Canada will run no deficits turned out to be "we're already in deficit but you haven't seen nothing yet!"
When StatsCan is turning out numbers that reflect this one can't help but wonder that this kind of data is anathema of the CONs' existence.


Numbers, they say, don't lie. And the numbers say that once again, overall, Canada last year became a safer place in which to live.

Statistics Canada is reporting that the national crime rate -based on the number of crimes reported to police -dropped three per cent last year compared with 2008, and has declined 17 per cent since 1999.


Any questions as to why Harper is hoping to create a huge divisive election issue out of his 'Big Government' boogieman? Considering he's the master of Big Government, the irony is rich...

SILENCE IS GOLDEN...

... or it may be their best attempt at getting people to swallow the swill being funnelled out of CON government headquarters.
Unappointed Harper biker-chick checker Maxime Bernier now claims the move was in response to "the silent majority."

"We're not there to please all special interest groups, we're there for the silent majority of Canadians," Bernier said. "I'm sure that the big majority of Canadians understand that, and will agree with our decisions."

Even though it is also admitted that there was no consultation of such.
Unless we're counting the psychic dresser hotline, perhaps. And things Stephen Harper thinks are good for you -- like a senate seat if you're fat and blue enough...
I've got a tip for you Maxime - don't ask that silent majority what they think of paying taxes, which also requires a significant amount of personal information bandied about to 'Big Government'. The kind of 'Big Government' that can create fake lakes, shut down a city, twist two provinces' arms to take on the HST-bugaboo (Don't invest in Ontario! unless...) and non-competitive contracts for billion-dollar military expenditures.
What a crock.

DISHONEST MISDIRECTION...

...typical CON mode of defence. Load up the guns, fire at will. Repeat.
Scott dissects the current 'non-debate' over Stephen Harper's secret decision to axe the long-form census, remarking about how there has not been much of a 'rallying cry' against the census until Harper and sock-puppet and gazebo expert Tony Clement said so. Then the CON-sheeple sat up and began to typeth on cue.
Now they've got renown lazy ex-cabinet guy and bedder of known gangster affiliates Maxime Bernier on the right wing, leading the tea-party-esque silliness. Yes, the minister who forgot his homework near the bed of a motorcycle mama. Well, I know why he doesn't want the Canadian government to know how many bedrooms he has...
The Vanity Press and the Globe and Mail's Jeffrey Simpson nail it in two different directions -- Harper wants to hide his own track record, while framing the future. He knows his electorate opportunities improve with a befuddled, ignorant and impulse driven public. Data, science and substance have no room in the decisions and actions of a Harper government. Stockwell Day and his dinosaur must be cheering very loudly from his seadoo parked in the garage.
It isn't hard to see how this could actually turn into a win for the dicta-er so-called CON leader. Grab an issue that connects in the stomach of a large enough group, hide your tracks and fuzzicate the rationale and debate. Call an election over it. Harper's core supporters are trained seals; they'll vote for fish.
By dividing the opposition's support, through means of governmental warfare, de-funding, isolating and disenfranchising, the right-wing wins.
That's the kind of Canada he wants.

CONSENSUS ON CENSUS...

... unless you're a living-in-the-dark CON, that is.
Oh sure, there's the token non-Tory contrarian questioning the purpose of the mandatory long-form Stats Canada questionaire, which has fostered a whopping three whole complaints to the privacy commissioner over the past 15 years.
Newspaper editorials are nearly unanimous; academia is too. Bankers and bureacrats, also. Geneologists, ditto. Stephen Harper's favourite (second) kicking post, those special interest groups that help the sick, underprivileged and visible and non-visible minorities? Count them as worried. Social planners, engineers, municipalities, policy planners, private businesses - they all have been aided in their work through information gleaned from the Canadian census.
Without a functioning, accurate census, more decisions like this will certainly be easier to slip past the great 'unwashed'.
So, while a virtually silent Harper leaves all the dodging and weaving for sock-puppet Tony Clement, the lie about why continues to stink.
If the issue was about privacy concerns, who raised them? Is it the cabal of religious right fanatics who've gained inside cabinet access through the likes of Darrel Reid? Wouldn't they love to see government eliminate its interest in solving the social ills, ie. a GWB-like platform that would result in religious groups controlling more social response agencies, here and abroad. Or is it the big business information industry that, perhaps, would love nothing better than control the data, the access and manner inwhich it is created? What do you think, Mr. Fraser Institute? Completely speculative on my part, but when Clement can ride a lie that Stats Canada on its own provided the option to rid themselves of this critical tool, I'm afraid even the most machavellian rationale must be examined.
This policy decision, which came about with no public consultation and no great study, according to Tony the talking Tory, must have had some big kahunas behind it. Who are they -- maybe they also know who secretly paid for Harper's run to the Alliance leadership? Or paid off McKay's bill after he turned all-Judas on the progressives who put him on that pedestal? Or is it just another piece to Harper's own remaking of Canada secret project? The one that he occasionally lets slip -- while the mainstream media keeps us comfortably warm in that pot of warming water?
It's up to us, and you, to keep up the heat on this one.