Laughing Stock

This should get some attention in the PMO. The ex head of the 2000 U.S. Census, John Thompson is in Canada for a convention and he has heard all about the Conservatives' mentally challenged plans for the Census:

The Chicago-based statistician then laughed at the details of Canada’s plan to pass out more questionnaires to make up for less compliance. He was part of a 2003 experiment in the United States to make voluntary the Census Bureau’s own detailed questionnaire, known as the American Community Survey. Statisticians quickly concluded the data would be less reliable and more expensive to obtain. (emphasis mine)

The PMO could not give two flying fucks what anyone in Canada thinks about the Census. However, now that the Americans are laughing at their buffoonery, that is a different matter, altogether.

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New Conservative Lexicon

Statist: Refers to any person who believes there is a legitimate role for government in society. Synonyms include: Nazi, Commie, Pinko, Dupe. Commonly used by people mumbling to themselves on the street, also on the opinion pages of the National Post or the Sun chain.

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Beggin Yer Pardon Yer Majesty

And speaking of our resting king, has anyone every seen more forelock tugging in your life than in the press coverage of Harper's "vacation"? Yes, being Prime Minister is hard, but so what? Harper wants the job and if he is going to do something major, like destroy the census, during the summer, he should be available to the public to defend himself, not hiding himself away like Howard Hughes in Vegas. Finally, is just me, or do you find that hiding behind your children, as an excuse for hiding from the public, just another example of Harper's cowardice?

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A Radical Newspaper Backs Census

Another radical, commie newspaper editorializes against our beloved (and resting, God bless him) leader's decision to save us from the census:

The federal Conservatives should reverse their stance on killing the mandatory long form of the Canadian census. From academics to genealogists to corporations, everyone except Stephen Harper's Tories seems opposed to the introduction of voluntary completion forms, replacing the long form. Economists, think-tanks, professional associations, non-profits, labour unions, religious groups, municipalities and corporations oppose the move, which will cost taxpayers millions more but lead to inferior results.

The name of the paper you ask? No, it isn't the Daily Worker, it is the Calgary Herald.

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Harper Desperate To Turn Page On Census

Instructs his PMO minions to "Release the Kraken!".

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The Capitalists Are Nervous

I do believe they are starting to question the economic bona fides of this insane clown posse of a government:

Roger Martin, dean of Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

Key Point: Productivity and Canada’s ability to compete globally will suffer.

If we’re really going to benefit from the information age and be a player in the information age, guess what? We have to have information, and use information. I think you want to give Canadians a chance to have their economy be a sophisticated economy that uses information to its best in the information age.

The question is, are we embracing the information age or are we going backward and saying – at a time when information is getting more valuable, more useful, you can squeeze more out of it – are we reverting to a charming earlier era when we didn’t use information for hardly anything, and had a less productive economy. That’s the issue …

The friends of capitalism are going to have to understand that this government is based on agrarian populism of the early 20th century and the 21st century Tea Party. It is fundamentally hostile to knowledge in any form, substituting "belief" and "common sense" as its highest ideals. It is fundamentally opposed to the Enlightenment's elevation of reason to the apex of epistemology. Appeals to reason will have little affect on this crew. Superstition and "gut feelings" are their guides. They are not modern people in any way that matters. In fact, they are closer to a cargo cult than a modern political party.

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Four Horsemen Alert

I agree with something that someone from the Fraser Institute says:

There’s no doubt everyone loves a new sporting complex. And circus clowns are people too. But these are not the sort of projects Canadian taxpayers have ever thought of as infrastructure. This was a historic opportunity to improve the nuts and bolts of the economy, say critics, yet much of the money has been frittered away. “We know we have lots of problems in our general infrastructure, but because the rationale was to get money out the door as quickly as possible, you see soccer pitches, swimming pools and boys and girls clubs getting money,” says Niels Veldhuis, senior economist at the Fraser Institute. After all, just two weeks ago yet another major blackout in Toronto left a quarter-million people in the dark. “You have to ask, is this about doing what’s right for Canada and the economy, or is this about getting as many votes as possible?”

This is something anyone with eyes could see going on all around them. Every small town in this country got a new arena, care of the Conservative government. Clean drinking water, on the other hand, not so much.

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