Layton: Census jail time a bogus threat

Layton calls for census compromise
NDP ready to remove jail threat from Statistics Act, leader says

http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/07/29/layton-harper-census-reform....

Corporations with deep pockets can afford to do their own marketing research to obtain accurate stats, but the average working stiff cannot.

This is just another of the many Conservative sops to the rich elite in our society, and a screw you, fend for yourself, towards the rest of us. 

I watched the Layton interview, and I particularly thought he was right on when he suggested that Harper wants to dumb down the census because the census shows inequality, meaning more soocial programs will have to be introduced to deal with that fact. The Cons want the census dumbed down to such an extent that it doesn't show real inequalities in society, thus no need for more social programming. Harper and his gang of thugs are such frigging pricks.

Census ain't broke, doesn't need fixing, so just leave it alone

Not everyone gets a long form census -- Statistics Canada extrapolates social trends from the more detailed data. To make those extrapolations statistical valid, useful and accurate, Stats Can needs to get back as many completed forms as possible, from the greatest range of people. The data aren't meaningful if only the most dutiful citizens complete the form. Statistics Canada needs data from students and seniors, from homeless people and busy billionaires, from aboriginal Canadians, brand-new Canadians, all kinds of Canadians. Some of the questions on the form may seem weirdly intrusive. But the identities of the people who answer are kept confidential. And information is essential to schools boards and health authorities, municipalities and government departments. It helps to plan roads and schools and sewers and electoral boundaries, to track employment and health trends, to build our future.

Accurate census data are particularly essential for Alberta, and for metro Edmonton. Our population has changed so dramatically since the last census. We need to know just who's living here, and what their social needs might be. We need to know how many aboriginal people are leaving reserves and moving to the city. We need to know how many new Canadians have moved here, where they're from, what languages they speak. We need to know, not so we can round up minorities or oppress them, but so we can be sure they getting the public services they need. If that's a "conspiracy," it's a pretty beneficent one.

It's true, of course, that the census has not always been put to benign uses. For thousands of years, it's been a favoured tool of kings and conquerors, an instrument of political control, a way to collect taxes or conscript soldiers or forced labourers. God, the Book of Samuel tells us, sent a plague that killed 70,000 Israelites, after King David, filled with hubris, ordered a census to help raise a larger army. And Jesus, of course, was born in a manger, when his pregnant mother was forced by a Roman census to travel to an overbooked Bethlehem.

But thousands of years of bad press notwithstanding, today's census is neither an Orwellian plot nor a cue for divine wrath. It's a useful tool to manage growth and change, just as it was in 1666. Yet the Harper government seems intent on undermining the integrity and authority of the national census, on exciting baseless fears by echoing the worst ideological excesses of the Republican rump right. If Stephen Harper and Tony Clements wanted to stir up ideological controversy and incite a culture war where none existed, they've done a masterful job. But if Harper's plan for a voluntary census results in a pile of inaccurate or corrupted data, it's ordinary Canadians who'll pay the price.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Census+broke+doesn+need+fixing+just+...

At least one person in Ottawa is enjoying her job - Kady's delightfully refreshing. 

But will he demand an immediate recall of Parliament? - Liveblogging NDP Leader Jack Layton at the NPT

More on Enbridge -- why, Layton wonders, are we shipping all that bituman down to the US, when it could be processed here? Back to the census, and a very good question from Marie Vastel: What makes him think the PM has any desire to compromise, or meet with him? Layton reminds her - and the rest of us - that he's asked for meetings with the PM before, and has gotten them -- sometimes. Does he think he will *this time*, though, she presses. Yes, he does -- or, at least, that's what he wants to be quoted saying. With that, having exhausted the questions, he departs.  

http://www.cbc.ca/politics/insidepolitics/2010/07/but-will-he-demand-an-...

The CEO Poll: No census consensus

Clement, however, fared even worse. He received a mean score of 39, which is lower than scores for other Conservative ministers in previous COMPAS polls. "There is no real rationale for changing something that has fundamentally worked for decades," wrote one respondent.

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/managing/ceo-poll/article.jsp?content=20...

This is priceless! Ralph Nader always said one of his most effective weapons was ridicule.

If we're cutting useless things in Ottawa

It's time to fire half the cabinet

Sometimes the future is so shiny and new we hardly dare gaze upon its face. But here was the brave new world in all its freedom-loving glory: a deposed former cabinet minister, writing on the website of a defunct magazine, about a soon-to-be-discredited federal program. Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs! I love the smell of napalm in the morning. 

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Fundamentally, my position is that whatever the presumed usefulness of these people, I don't believe it justifies forcing people to pay for their chauffeured cars and putting up with their really bad imitations of competent administrators. When we roll back the state, let's roll it right over this crew:

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/07/23/if-were-cutting-useless-things-in-ott...

Sweet!

The Drowning of Tony Clement's Credibility

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/07/28/the-drowning-of-tony-clements-credibi...

How many people know the difference between the civil service and our elected representatives/elected government?

Our elected government/representatives make the policy. The civil servants are just that. Their job is to carry out the government's instructions. In Canada, the civil service is not elected and is supposed to be politically neutral. It's not the civil service's job to make the government do anything.

How can the information provided by Stats Can (an agency that's part of the civil service) make a government do anything, then? It can't.

But here's a hint, fellow babblers:

If you feel strongly enough about this issue, why don't you get off your ass and demonstrate about it in the streets?

As I said, our government is our elected representatives. All Herr Harper and his fellow Cons. give a f_ck about is their party's popularity and where their next votes are coming from.

If you feel strongly enough about this issue, then show up in the streets and let the Cons. know that enough people are angry enough about this issue that they're going to lose too many votes to make it worthwhile to cling to this policy.

That is, unless you got any better ideas or would rather just blog on what one babbler referred to as this "echochamber".

Indeed, there is a national vigil being organized on August 5 during the Premiers' Meeting.  Check the Facebook group's Wall for further details.

Well, the government has even lost L. Ian MacDonald on this issue, who's calling out Harper's failure to communicate, and saying they should be looking for a compromise that restores a mandatory census, in his column for the Gazette this morning.  Sun columnists are also writing that Harper's hammering himself [12], and the census decision was denounced again in editorials in no less than the Calgary Herald and National Post (its second one criticizing the decision).

So, not only is there a Premiers' meeting next week, but an international conference of statisticians in Vancouver, and the Conservatives' National Caucus meeting (not sure where).  The PM has managed to assemble a pretty impressive coalition against himself (the dancing fool of a leader of the opposition notwithstanding).

I'm wondering just how much further he wants to drag this out.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canadas-stat-crunchers-join-census-fight/article1659883/

'... “I think we've already presented a pretty reasonable position: and that's if Canadians wish to give the information to the government – to census takers – then by all means they can,” [Conservative spokesman Erik Waddell] said. “We just think it's absurd that anyone should be threatened with jail time or fines, and we're not going to budge on that.”

'Mr. Waddell suggested that the opposition parties are not interested in compromise. He noted that during a Commons Industry committee meeting last week, the Conservatives’ political rivals signalled they are only interested in restoring the previous census regime.

' “When that committee meeting ended, it was the opposition parties who banded together and voted in favour of there being only one option – and to their mind that's full reinstatement of the mandatory long form, including jail fines and monetary penalties,” Mr. Waddell said. “And if that's their position, we can't support it.” '

There was an exceptionally good analysis piece last night from the two women at Canadian Press who first broke the story and then continued to break new developments in it: Jennifer Ditchburn and Heather Scoffield.  Well worth the read.

The comments after the Maclean's article are hilarious, one can see the mentioned Minister's staff hands at work, trying to defame Wells. Totally ev ident these freaks pay people to try to keep their image unblemished, accent on try, while the media, small amount that it is, who speak against them are razzed on and ridiculed by Conservative talking points spewed endlessly to their base.

Guergis did one good thing as cabinet Minister, she gave us first hand evidence that the Cabinet Minister's staff are paid to do just that.

Our tax dollars at work, don't cha love it?

... no wonder spending has gone up over 100% since Harper got in.

Just finished OO's linked to article and it noted this:

And I suspect the majority of white Canadians will now back off on complaints, after they read this and go right along with it, as it puts us front and centre!

The federal Opposition Liberals say they will table a private member's bill to reinstate the mandatory long-form census when Parliament returns next month.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/08/26/census-changes-liberals-bill.html#ixzz0xjklpE3A