Tony Clement on Tuesday afternoon:
"I am entitled to believe that when a deputy minister -- in this case the chief statistician -- gives me a set of options, he is comfortable with those options."
Tony Clement on Wednesday evening:
"However, after the government's decision to replace the mandatory long-form census, Statistics Canada was asked to provide options for conducting a voluntary survey of households... One of the options provided - the voluntary National Household Survey - was chosen."
You see, when Clement decided the government was going to proceed with a voluntary survey of households he asked Statscan to produce options for a voluntary survey of households and when Statscan took those words, put them into caps, added the word "national" and presented it to Clement as an option of how the government might proceed with a voluntary survey of households bingo bango, out came the voluntary National Household Survey. Clement was perfectly within his right as Minister to think the Chief Statistician was totally kosher with the option.
Put otherwise, a circular argument is one that goes round and round in circles.
It is on days like today that I am reminded of O'Sullivan's First Law, which states that all organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing.
Now O'Sullivan's First Law is paranoid, wrong and just a wee bit nuts but if you accept that Stephen Harper believes it to be true, it helps to explain many of his otherwise inexplicable actions.