Placating Tory base on the census causes Harper government grief

[CHIMO]

The Conservatives offered a novel justification Sunday for their decision to scrap the mandatory long-form version of the census.

“Canadians don't want the government at their doorstep at 10 o'clock at night while they may be doing something in their bedroom, like reading,” Dimitri Soudas, Stephen Harper’s spokesman, wrote in an e-mail.

Reading?

But this latest controversy is anything but a laughing matter. Once again the government has tried to slip its conservative base a bone, only to see the initiative blow into a full-fledged furor that paints the Conservatives as disturbingly ideological in the eyes of uncommitted voters.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/john-ibbitson/placating-tory-base-on-the-census-causes-harper-government-grief/article1644204/

Missing some facial hairs.

[Spazito]

1. It seems they are feeling the heat...

Tories call for immediate hearings to explain axing of long census

OTTAWA - Federal politicians will have to interrupt their summer break to return to Ottawa and face off over the Tories' cancellation of next year's mandatory, long census.

Both the Conservatives and the Liberals are calling for emergency meetings of the federal industry committee to hash out their differences over how the 2011 census should be handled.

The Tories say they need hearings to better explain their recent decision to get rid of the compulsory long questionnaire that is normally sent to 20 per cent of households along with the short census form that is sent to all households.

snip

Instead of cancelling the mandatory long form, the government should put its efforts into showing respondents why their answers will remain strictly confidential, but are also very important to understanding changes afoot in Canada, Garneau said.

more

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/tories-call-for-immediate-hearings-to-explain-axing-of--long-census-98699169.html

[EmilyKent]

2. Are you aware they are now citing Jedi Knights?

http://www.cbc.ca/politics/insidepolitics/2010/07/dimitriwatch-but-do-jedi-knights-support-the-mandatory-census-long-form-or-not.html

[CHIMO]

3. Had Heard

That Friday.

It all reminds me of the Bush dynasty. We make history and you report it.

So why all the fuss. Nine billion going onto twenty billion and G20 problems.

If I were the opposition, I would take a low key to this and let the public and newspapers push Harper back or allow him to implement it and bring it back at election time.

[EmilyKent]

4. This has exploded on a Sunday night.

Twitter and the web have gone ballistic on this.

[daleo]

5. I filled out the long form once

It was no big deal. No government statisticians showed up in mine and my wife's bedroom. Of course, now that the Harper government is supporting the porn industry, who knows?

I have used census data on countless occasions at work. It would be a travesty to undermine its validity by making it voluntary. Response bias is a fact of life in surveys. Everyone in the field (especially Statistics Canada) knows this. The Chief Statistician should get some courage and speak some plain truth to people on this issue.

[Spazito]

6. Yep, I have filled out the long form as well...

It takes a bit longer but it's no biggie. I certainly didn't feel my privacy had been 'violated' because a question asked about the square footage of my house.

[CHIMO]

7. Today

On 630 CHED in Edmonton, I thought that I was listening to Fox North.

Apparently only the pointy heads are upset with getting rid of the long form census. Also some nut guy in Calgary who had to use the long form in the 1996 census.

On Power & Politics today, one of the experts thinks that it is not a big deal for the ordinary folk. It's all the special interest groups.

So it seems that there is no problem. Canada is already dummed down.

So it would be nice to have this item continue to simmer. Don't get Harper to back down.

Nice to have a pointy head on this forum.

[daleo]

8. CHED is tough to take

Now the Chief Statistician at Statistics Canada is "mulling his future". Interesting development.