Taking leave of our Census

Good decisions require good information. Eliminating useful data is the first step in eliminating useful programs.

Anyone with a basic knowledge of statistics would know that a voluntary long form will only receive responses from a biased sample. People who may not know how to read, for example, will not take the time to have it completed with some help if it is voluntary. There is a loss of information in a community that could potentially be used to ensure that those people's children get the support they need in the schools based on the trends in the data. That is just one small example of how this data can be used.

One example mentioned is about how many bedrooms are in a house. Urban planners use this information, they don't pin point your house. It's all merged together to help plan new communities in your city based on number of bedrooms/house and what the needs of the city will be. If the city's population is getting older and there is a huge inventory of 4 or 5 bedroom homes, perhaps they can look at building smaller (fewer bedroom)homes in new communities as these older homes come up for sale by their older/deceased owners. It helps balance the inventory available and helps planners make decisions that have to be made often 5-10 years before a penny is even laid down on the purchase of a new home.

We need a complete and accurate picture of our country. Without some sort of official demographic image, the government will come up with its own picture to suit its own needs and those of its supporters. And the rest of us will have no recourse to refute that "data".

An authorized, informed census will show what our country needs and provides. The Conservatives want to scrap as many social programs as possible, and what better way than to take away the mechanism to identify where these programs should go.

The data they are denying for ideological reasons is unacceptable. Answer the form if you want to be a part of our society. There is lots of bush up north to hide in if you don't want to participate in our society.

Much like the "tax relief" frame used by G.W. Bush to slash social programs the Republicans didn't like (how can we provide programs when we don't have any money?), removing one of the cornerstones of public and business policy development is a key to the Conservative platform of smaller government giving you less for your money (we can't fund programs if we can't prove there is a need for them).

It's the same frame, different words. If you are against "tax relief", "less government intrusion in your life", etc, you are a "tax and spend liberal", a "socialist", "the demon holding back progress"...insert preferred damning epithet here.

It works the same in any country. There will be protest and many will rise to the occasion in the media, at their urging, but in the end, at election time most will vote against their own self-interest again, buying the dream created for the public by back room politicos, being disappointed once more and blaming those we elected for all our problems.