Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

David Tilson will not submit to your tyranny

by Aaron Wherry on Thursday, July 22, 2010 2:12pm - 0 Comments

Whatever his concerns about previous efforts “to force Canadians to divulge detailed personal information under threat of prosecution,” Tony Clement did still, at last report, “strongly encourage” Canadians to participate in the new voluntary survey. Conservative MP David Tilson is not so encouraged.

“I’ve completed the long-form in the past and quite frankly, I don’t know why the government needs to know all that information about people,” Tilson said. “If the government sends the (new) survey to me, I won’t be completing it. Because it’s voluntary, I have no reason to be completing it.”

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  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Geiseric Geiseric

    " I don’t know why the government needs to know all that information about people"

    what's funny is I believe him.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/MostlyCivil MostlyCivil

      If only he had access to someone in the government to ask…

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/Geiseric Geiseric

        someone who knew?

        slim pickings

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/WDM WDM

    ..and in addition GET OFF HIS DAMN LAWN!

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Geiseric Geiseric

      LOL!

      • burlivespipe

        Tilson is someone who likely doesn't have a bedroom, just a crawlspace to keep his ammo and dank, sheep-involved thoughts…

  • Lord Kitchener's Own

    "Because it’s voluntary, I have no reason to be completing it."

    Gee, maybe we should think about making the survey random and mandatory so as to ensure a better and more representative sample of the population.

    Thank you, Mr. Tilson, for giving us an excellent idea!

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Ottawa_Centrist Ottawa_Centrist

      Just make all census forms only available at the post office and those who want to fill them out will, voluntarily.

      Problem solved.

      • http://intensedebate.com/people/Halo_Override Halo_Override

        Problem not even close to being addressed, but my guess is you're aware of that.

        • http://intensedebate.com/people/Ottawa_Centrist Ottawa_Centrist

          It's easier to lead the parade than it is to reroute it. Or something like that.

  • Olaf

    Solid title Wherry, must say.

  • Emily

    I don't think Cons have the slightest idea how the govt works. They don't even understand their own depts!

    But yes, if it's merely voluntary, why bother making the effort?

    Think that'll work?

    Has Mr Tilson even been following this?

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/MostlyCivil MostlyCivil

      Now Emily, that's not true. Some of the members may be detail deficient, but those at the top are quite well informed on the details. Love them or hate them, they have done a remarkable job of making parliament function to benefit the party in power. It's approaching Chretien status.

  • marco

    Please make it stop! I can't take anymore statistical talk.

  • Dee

    Thanks to Mr. Tilson for his fine demonstration of responsible civic duty. This is what the Conservatives have degenerated to…

  • Anon 001

    David Tilson is not an ignorant man. Here are some excerpts from his website at http://www.davidtilson.ca/EN/3464/:

    "Mr. Tilson enjoyed a distinguished career in law and provincial politics."

    "Mr. Tilson served as a trustee on the Dufferin Board of Education, and as chair of the board’s Management Committee. "

    "After leaving provincial politics in 2002, Mr. Tilson served as Vice-Chair of the Ontario Municipal Board, a body that regulates development and planning."

    So, there you go. This is the man who professes not to "..know why the government needs to know all that information about people."

    Ignorance is indeed bliss. Incidentally, Tony Clement is also a lawyer. Don't they teach statistics in law programs these days?

    • Emily

      Willful ignorance seems to be a hallmark of this govt.

    • Blacktop

      Give Mr. Tilson a short course in Economics 101 and Stats 101.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok Sean

    I'm positively loving the Conservative logic here:

    "I know nothing about it, so it clearly serves no purpose."

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/Geiseric Geiseric

      That's management for you.

      • burlivespipe

        Ah, a Harper government designed by Sgt. Schultz. I had the early impression it was more Klink…

    • Emily

      Trouble is they're like that with everything!

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Stewart_Smith Stewart_Smith

    Sometimes my ability to foresee the future sickens me.

    In the future, there apparently will be a PR campaign to "encourage people to use the new, voluntary long form", however it will not talk so much about all the important uses of the data, nor will it actual encourage them to fill it out. It will instead talk at great length about how our government saved us from the awful intrusion of the mandatory form and freed us from the coercive state the Liberals had wrought upon us all. Tony's smile will beam down on us all.

    The above is only part of my vision of the future and although sad and depressing it is not the part that sickens me.

    The part that sickens me is that in the future I foresee that I will have to buy a new TV and seek medical care for cuts to my foot.

    • Standing By

      I see even worse. Even if Harper ostensibly backs down, a campaign (maybe organized somewhere in Calgary) will emerge advocating mass refusal to fill out the long-form, and it will have enough success to statistically invalidate the results.

      Which is to say that I fear Harper, by triggering this needless controversy, has already achieved his objective, which is to set the stage for more ignorance-based, ideologically-driven decision-making in public policy.

      And he really does not care who doesn't like it, since he's on his way out anyway.

  • Jan

    Tilson ? – I get it – they've sending out the idiots first to take the flak,

    • officerfarva

      So that makes Tony Clement the principal idiot? Yep, your theory is sound.

    • BCer in Mtl

      Then Gary Goodyear (evidence of evolution based on high heels) should be showing up in 3 . . . 2. . . . 1 . . .

  • Loraine Lamontagne

    Will this MP have the guts of the former Chief Statistitian and vote against the government's budget when it seeks money to pay for the National Household Survey and the massive advertising campaigns encouraging people to complete it?

    The government will allow an additional 1,5 millions National Household Surveys, for a total of 3,75 million surveys, I believe, to be mailed to Canadians and extend by four weeks following the mandatory May 2011 census to complete the NHS. During that 4 week period the government will encourage YOU to fill out the NHS by all means at its disposal (read massive advertising campaigns).

    So if it gets a completion rate of 60%, it will be deemed a great success, with as much information voluntarily obtained as would have been the case with a mandatory long-form. I won't try to explain random sampling to Conservatives: a minister who believes that Trudeau implied to keep the number of bedrooms a secret to government rather than keeping the state out of what consenting adults do in the bedroom is an idiot. I don't care if he's a lawyer, he's an idiot.

  • Amateur Hour

    Etymology:

    Ignoramus, ignorant lawyer in Ignoramus (1615), play by George Ruggle, from Latin, literally, we are ignorant of
    Date: circa 1616 : an utterly ignorant person : dunce

    Hopefully, Tilson won't bother to VOTE in the next election as it is not mandatory either.

  • Dave

    Does Tilson's riding association or campaign participate in CIMS?

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/OntarioTown OntarioTown

    Joe Comartin never smiles – I don't know why. But Tilson is the most beligerent and miserable old man I've ever seen.

    As my mother said, old men don't get grumpy, grumpy men get old.

    Someone, please give the guy a drink or two, lighten him up.

    He depresses me

    • Jan

      Have you ever seen him chairing a committee? He almost sets off the smoke detectors.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jesse_Rosenberg Jesse_Rosenberg

    Just a taste of a glorious future in which Conservative MPs are allowed to speak their minds instead of cowardly wearing the PM's muzzle.

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