Today a truly surprising assembly of organizations – definitely not a coalition – made a group request for a meeting with the Minister who has been put in charge of executing the decision to ax the Census long-form questionnaire. Their objective? “We understand that the far-reaching impacts of this decision may not have been fully anticipated and we respectfully request […]
Read moreThe Globe and Mail has allowed their poll about Census “intrusiveness†to stand for the third day. By 10 a.m. on Sunday over 32,000 people had registered their vote with the newspaper. Undoubtedly this is some kind of record for the daily Globe poll, which got 222 votes for the previous one. The question is highly leading – “Do you […]
Read moreJeffrey Simpson’s column yesterday nailed it. There is only one reason this Census situation is so senselessly white-hot: the government’s position. Its radical ideology and stunning stubbornness have raised the stakes alarmingly high. There must be plenty of Conservatives who are recoiling at the shenanigans of these so-called Conservatives. Every time Tony Clement and the Prime Minister’s spokesthingy says “coercive†[…]
Read moreYesterday a CCPA board member alerted my Exec Director that the Globe and Mail poll for the day was on the Census, noting that, very early in the day, the poll was running 2 votes yes for every vote no. The polling question: Do you think the long-form census questionnaire is an intrusion on the privacy of Canadians? It’s a […]
Read moreI was wondering where our fellow researchers and analysts stood on this topic. They were unusually silent, even though I had invited them to participate in a group process requesting a meeting with the Minister and PM, a group which, by the way, seemed to cross all boundaries and divides. I stand corrected. http://www.canada.com/Fraser+Institute+dismisses+need+mandatory+long+form+census/3287248/story.html Quite by accident on my way […]
Read moreJewish, Evangelical groups oppose census change http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Politics/20100715/census-backlash-100715/ And this just in: Stephen’s cat Cheddar opposes the changes too. He’s cheesed! A colleague notes:”If you have the Jews, the Evangelicals, the provinces, growing parts of the business lobby, the academics, Quebec, the City of Calgary, the Community Foundations, the United Ways, the CLC, etc, there’s not a lot left other than […]
Read moreSHEESH! I’ve never seen anything like this, have you? My fave – Kelly McParland’s Full Comment, at the bottom. Hilarious and right on the money. THURSDAY CLIPPINGS “NEWS HOUR FINAL†Global BC and Global Ontario Broadcast Date: Thursday July 15 2010 The Harper government says it’s making changes to the census based on widespread privacy complaints but as Shirlee Engel […]
Read moreHere’s the media round-up from over the weekend and today’s press. You will note almost all the stories are against the Harper decision to cut the Census long-form questionnaire. However the push-back-in-print has begun. Clark’s piece from the Province [BC] is an ode to libertarianism, and Ditchburn’s story for CP, “Census consensus among Conservatives”, offers some insights on where this […]
Read moreFrom strategies on austerity to shutting down public discourse, Prime Minister Harper seems to have found a new BFF at the G8 meetings. David Cameron’s new tough-as-nails coalition government is planning to scrap the Census in the U.K., which has been taken every 10 years for the past 200 years. It is viewed as “expensive and inefficient”. Unlike Canada’s decision, […]
Read moreThe sound of backlash to the government’s decision on cutting the Census long-form questionnaire continues to rumble across the country. Tuesday’s Globe and Mail published a story on the topic as well as a column by Andre Picard which was drawn primarily from the open letter on this blog. The next day the sound of outrage came from Mr. Harper’s […]
Read moreThe former Chief Statistician, Ivan Fellegi, who served Canada for 51 years, cannot identify any census in any country that is voluntary. From time immemorial, such is the nature of Census taking. Thus far there are only two people on public record in Canada taking a public stand against the Census and it is not because of the questions on […]
Read moreIf you care about the quality of data that helps us do our analysis, here is a small step you can take to help reverse the Statistics Canada/Government of Canada’s decision to eliminate the Census long form.
Read moreJune 30, 2010 Open letter to the Honourable Tony Clement, Ministry of Industry and Minister Responsible for Statistics Canada and Munir Sheikh, Chief Statistician, Statistics Canada Dear Sirs I am concerned by the Canwest report about the decision to restrict the upcoming Census, and the path the highly-regarded Statistics Canada and the Government of Canada seems to be headed down […]
Read moreJohn Richards tells us “tough love” was the right public policy stance for governments to take in the mid 1990s. In his report released today by the C.D.Howe Institute, Reducing Lone Parent Poverty: A Canadian Success Story,Richards tells us that the tightening of access to welfare and the imposition of workfare was the kick-in-the-butt that lone parents needed to move […]
Read moreThe Parliamentary Budget Office today released its report showing that just one legislative change by the federal Conservatives – the Truth in Sentencing Act, which came into effect on February 23 – will double the costs of correctional services in this country over the next five years, from $4.4 billion to $9.5 billion. Most of these costs will be borne […]
Read moreIn his column today in The Guardian, Will Hutton is the latest pundit to suggest Canada’s example from the mid 1990s is the right way to tackle austerity. Hutton’s aim is true. He knows the current proposals for balancing the books will unleash “the needless squandering of [British] lives.” In his effort to point to a more sensible path he makes […]
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Read moreToday’s day-after-International-Women’s-Day story in the New York Times by Nancy Folbre links to four indices of gender equity. How is Canada doing? Canada ranks 4th in the Human Development Index (we were number one for eight years) as well as the UNDP Gender Development Index, behind Norway, Australia and Iceland. Norway has been ranked the best country for human development […]
Read moreAs the budget yak-fest approaches, the focus is on how we’re going to balance the books. People pointing out we have bigger fish to fry – like making a dent in the nation’s $125 billion infrastructure deficit, addressing growing poverty, or preparing for a massive wave of retirements – are viewed as off-topic. But simply balancing the books is what’s […]
Read moreI purchase a monthly unadjusted Labour Force Survey data series from StatsCan that provides monthly labour force trends by age, sex, province, and type of job (full-time, part-time, by industry, and by status – self-employed or employed). This is a helpful addition to the published monthly stats in The Daily, which use seasonally adjusted numbers from the Labour Force Survey. […]
Read moreThe latest changes to EI to be introduced by the Conservatives do almost nothing for the shock troops of the labour market, those who were first felled when the recession hit last year. Bill C-50 will pass – whether or not it is fast-tracked today or “well-considered†in committee depends on how the procedural tactics imbedded in the bill are […]
Read moreWith their backs once again to the wall, the Conservatives today announced that they will, at long last, propose additional measures to help the unemployed, something almost everyone inside and outside Parliament has been asking them to do for the better part of a year. They will extend employment insurance benefits by another 5 to 20 weeks for those who […]
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