Oh Stats Canada...

We damned well better "stand on guard," or the Tories will just continue down this road of screwing Canadians and destroying fine institutions like Statistics Canada. Every kind of industry, labour, academic and charitable organization had sent petitions, letters and press releases saying the same thing, backed by a truckloads of statisticians and economists, said in effect that a voluntary survey would effectively gut the census. By his resignation Munir Sheikh strongly echoed those opinions.

John Ibbitson of the Globe and Mail believes the Tories should reverse course on this - I don't believe they will. On the plus side, they have provided the opposition with an easy target and a reminder during the summer months that the Tories are first last and always ideologically driven in a way that does not reflect the majority of Canadians.

In other news, Iggy continues his bus tour and it takes him to former PM Jean Chretien's hometown of Shawinigan, Quebec. I do believe they'll make a politician out of Iggy yet - necessity is a mother!

Standing Up!

Munir Sheikh head of Statistics Canada decided to stand up to Stephen Harper's pandering to the right wing of his party and has resigned over the government's plan to scrap the mandatory long-form census, saying the replacement they propose for this will not work. The Globe and Mail editorial on the surprise resignation begins: The folly of the federal government's decision to change the census has been exposed, and at a steep price. The resignation of Munir Sheikh, Canada's chief statistician and the head of Statistics Canada, represents the loss of a respected public servant, and a further blow to the credibility of a venerable agency.

Industry Minister Tony Clement who has been accused of misrepresenting census impact and the advice he has been receiving from the internationally respected agency said he acknowledges Mr. Sheikh's resignation "with regret." Mr. Clement has said Statscan officials reassured him the agency can manage the 2011 census effectively without forcing some people to fill out the longer version of the form. But, according to a source close to the story who asked not to be identified, that’s not what Mr. Clement has been told. Clearly Mr. Clement has not been "misrepresenting," he has been deliberately lying and Mr. Sheikh's resignation makes that perfectly clear.

Oh, and Canada's Provincial Premiers don't think any of this is a great idea either.

We've asked this question before about the Prime Minister, is he an ideologue or just an asshole? And the answer is always the same: He's an assalogue! Or a sanctihole if you prefer. Either way he's not the Prime Minister of all Canadians, only the 30% or so who voted for him - the rest of us apparently can all go hang!