Down a rabbit hole?
Commenting on the Conservatives' pandering to their right-wing base (Placating The Tory Faithful - July 23), John Ibbitson says "Canada has no Tea Party movement." Anybody who can listen to Stockwell Day (whose desire to review the federal government's pay equity laws figures prominently in Mr. Ibbitson's column), or just about any other government minister these days, and not think they've fallen down a rabbit hole and somehow ended up at the original tea party, the one hosted by the Mad Hatter, is confusing fantasy with reality.
The evidence that Canada does indeed have a tea party is obvious; it takes all the running Stephen Harper's government can do just to stay in the same place.
Daniel J. Christie, Port Hope, Ont.
To the (census) trenches
What alternate universe is our government functioning in? Treasury Board President Stockwell Day has trotted out the Geneva Convention, arguing that prisoners of war faced less legal pressure to provide information to the enemy than Canadians faced with the long form census (Tories Try Hogan's Heroes Defence In Census Feud - online, July 23). Being asked how many bedrooms are in a home equates with "even prisoners of war only have to give their name, rank and serial number"?
Is the government so keen, in this entire census mess, to have the whole country channel its inner Sergeant Schultz: "I know nothing. NOTHING!"
Right, well, "dis-missed!"
Michelle Reynolds, Halifax
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Jeffrey Simpson reflects my frustration perfectly (Stats Crash At The Corner Of Ideology And Reason - July 23). Canadians need to hold this government to account, especially Stephen Harper, in the upcoming election.
What election? The one that should happen as soon as possible before any more ideologically driven, irrational and, ultimately, harmful decisions are taken by this government.
Cassie Bell, Toronto
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Advocates of a mandatory long form census consider it a given that it will yield the most valid data, but they ignore findings from social psychology that people who are coerced to participate in surveys, particularly those dealing with personal matters, will often give false and misleading answers.
Contemporary survey researchers use voluntary samples exclusively (ethics committees demand it) and try to increase the number of respondents by means of incentives rather than intimidation. A modest tax credit, for example, might be very effective in the present case. There are also statistical means of stratifying data from samples along demographic lines that provide more accurate projections of the population as a whole. In all, the mandatory long form may be the worst way to collect census data, from a methodological as well as ethical perspective.
Irwin Silverman, Toronto
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The Canadian Women's Foundation is one of the growing group of voices concerned about the government's decision to discontinue the census long-form questionnaire.
Without this data, we believe that it will become impossible to accurately answer even basic questions such as "How has the recession affected women?" or "How is the ethno-racial makeup of Canada's major cities changing?" or "In which provinces do young women have the lowest education achievements?" or "Are income levels for aboriginal women rising or falling?"
We urge the government to maintain the current census process. It is their responsibility to ensure that community organizations such as ours have access to the information we need to continue our work in improving social conditions for Canadians.
Beverley Wybrow, CEO; Mary Mowbray, co-chair, board of directors; Canadian Women's Foundation
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I am appalled by the arrogance and ignorance exhibited by our political leaders on the issue of the cancellation of the mandatory census long-form. The critics often cite examples of countries that have done away with the census as evidence Canada should do the same in the name of privacy. What they fail to acknowledge is that the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands and other European states have extensive administrative data bases that contain the same information that Canada gathers in the census. These data include registration numbers that are used to create linked data bases for all individuals living in these countries. The residents (citizens and non-citizens alike) in these countries are obliged to provide this information. All interactions with the state (health, education, taxation, the justice system, migration) are recorded in these data bases. Is this less intrusive, and should it be held up as an alternative? The most respected social scientists in Canada have told us that a voluntary survey will yield biased results. Perhaps Industry Minister Tony Clement would like to propose a national registration system akin to those cited above? Does he honestly believe that this would be less intrusive?
Gustave Goldmann, senior fellow, sociology and anthropology, University of Ottawa
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Only the current federal government could take a moderately low level issue such as an adjustment to a census form and turn it into a countrywide distraction, a cause for the resignation of an important civil servant and an example of political stupidity of the highest order. Where is Sir Humphrey Appleby when you need him - desperately?
Terry Ussher, Nobleton, Ont.
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To use an honoured phrase from these very pages, I am shocked and appalled. The current government is showing once again its belief that political desire trumps science, facts and reason.
I urge the Conservative government to take a page from its own book and recognize the need to recalibrate its position. I refer, of course, to its decision to leave the national anthem "as is." Surely it's time to change from O Canada to Send in the Clowns.
Walter McCutchan, Waterloo, Ont.
Conrad's war
So, Conrad Black is at war ('It's A War And War Goes On' - July 23). As a Canadian lawyer and shareholder of public companies, I value the rule of law to the utmost, and demand complete loyalty, honesty and rejection of self-dealing on the part of the officers and directors of public companies. I declare Conrad Black an enemy combatant.
Victor Svacek, Nanaimo, B.C.
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Conrad Black's release has brought forth unexpected and thought-provoking emotions in me. Mostly, it has cheered me up. Lord Black is an extraordinary, if not entirely exemplary, individual. He and I have little in common. I share neither his politics nor his attachment to wealth, power and sense of entitlement. I marvel at his vocabulary (with some envy, being a Scrabble player), and respect his knowledge of history. But his arrogance and A-list celebrity would normally make him the perfect villain whose incarceration would be more satisfying than troubling to ordinary folks like me.
Instead, I rejoice in his freedom. Why? Perhaps because his alleged crimes never provoked any real sense of outrage. I think he was convicted as much for being rich and over the top, as he was for having transgressed any laws. Whatever he may have done to bring himself (and his business empire) down pales in comparison to the ostensibly law abiding, mostly anonymous titans of the financial world who decimated my retirement savings and brought the world economy to the brink of disaster. They will never see the inside of a prison cell, which is a shame.
It felt wrong to see Lord Black in a cell. I am almost embarrassed to admit I wish him well.
Eric K. Slone, Ferguson's Cove, N.S.
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Conrad Black's story grows more tedious with every headline. While I'm sure he enjoys the attention, I have a suggestion that should suit the TRWTDC (The Rest of the World That Doesn't Care): Why not leave it to the British tabloids to treat his tribulations with the respect that they deserve and let them bury it between the ads for breasts and beer.
Richard Sylvester, Milton, Ont.
What does it take?
I am quite curious to know what a police officer in Canada has to do in order to be fired (Vancouver Officer Apologizes For Pushing Disabled Woman - online, July 23). I am totally unsurprised that a Vancouver police officer has not so much as been put on desk duty after shoving a disabled woman to the ground without any apparent provocation. (The act was captured on video; the officer remains "on full duty pending the outcome of the internal investigation.")
The arrogance and disrespect some officers display toward law-abiding citizens is something for which they should be ashamed. I shudder to think how often this happens when there are no cameras around to catch it.
Andrew MacLeod, Ottawa
Farther into the hereafter
Robert Vineberg (Biking Into The Hereafter - letters, July 23) is correct that the British word for passing another driver or rider (properly on the right, since Britons drive on the left-hand side of the road) is "overtake." However, in poking fun for using the word "undertake" in this context, he hasn't grasped that, in British usage, to undertake is to pass on the wrong (i.e. left) side of another vehicle, a dangerous manoeuvre routinely practised on Canadian highways but still frowned on by most drivers in Britain. The British having a keen sense of irony, the grim pun is entirely deliberate.
David Prosser, Stratford, Ont.