C'mon, people! The complaints provided the excuse.

Scrapping the mandatory long-form census questionnaire never had anything to do with Canadians' wishes, fears or concerns.

If that wasn't clear before, it should be obvious now that the Toronto Star has revealed Prime Minister Stephen Harper's so-called Conservative government made the decision to scrap the long-form census on the basis of fewer than 100 complaints from Canadians.

Sylvia Ostry may be shocked, shocked, at Prime Minister Stephen Harper's drive to deprive Statistics Canada of its ability to conduct meaningful research, but no one who has been paying attention ought to be.