It only took about two minutes Tuesday night for the federal election campaign's newest character issue, the conclusions of the Auditor-General's leaked report on the G8/G20 summit, to break the surface of the English-language federal leaders' election debate.

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.

OK - now this is not satire. This is REAL news. I'm NOT making this up. I read it on the subway on my way home from work.

"[The Unites States], and particularly your conservative movement, is a light and an inspiration to people in this country and across the world." - Stephen Harper, 1997

Cross-posted from Catch 22 Harper Conservatives

Memo from: Statistics Canada

To: All Canadians

Subject: Mandatory long form census

Due to mounting partisan pressure from peeping toms who want to know your favorite sex position, whether you pee sitting or standing and how many chai lattes you drink every week, our great leader PM Stephen Harper has agreed to reinstate the mandatory long form census. All households that receive the new long form, are now required to follow the instructions and complete the survey. We apologize for violating your privacy and wasting your time.

Remember the successive scandals about $640 toilet seats, $7,600 coffee pots and $436 hammers made for the U.S. armed forces?

The simple explanation is usually the right one, so the smart money's always been on the bet that by over-budgeting for tens of thousands for simple items like these, the U.S. armed forces padded their top-secret budgets, creating fiscal space that could be inhabited by expensive "black projects," "special weapons skunkworks" and the like.