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

Hard to get (II)

by Aaron Wherry on Friday, August 20, 2010 10:53am - 0 Comments

A week ago, the National Statistics Council publicly renewed its offer to meet with the Industry Minister about the census. As of last night, according to NSC president Ian McKinnon, there had been “no expression of interest from the minister’s office in meeting with representatives of the Statistics Council.”

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  • Mandatory Jedi

    C-3PO: Sir, If I may venture an opinion…

    Han Solo: I'm not really interested in your opinion 3PO.

    • Bob

      Nice. Except Tony Clement is actually WAYYY more like C-3PO than Han Solo.

      • MostlyCivil

        Indeed…let's try it like this:

        Mr Clement:: Sir, If I may venture an opinion…

        Mr. Harper: I'm not really interested in your opinion, Tony.

  • Anon 001

    Since it has "Council" in its name, Tony probably thinks it's a left-wing advocacy group.

    Besides, why would Tony Clement, or any minister in this government, have any interest in knowledge, facts, science and other left-wing elitist wimpy nonsense?

  • hollinm

    Wherry you can keep beating the band all you want and publishing all those people who oppose the census move but the fact is the government has made its decision and for all intents and purposes the discussion is over. Talk about advocacy journalism. Go back and publish some staged pictures of Ignatieff and his bus tour. He needs all the support he can get from MacLeans because nobody else is paying any attention.

    • Emily

      It is far from over, but Cons would like to pretend it is.

      • http://scottdiatribe.canflag.com/ Scott_Tribe

        Very far from over. I can assure hollinm of that.

        • hollinm

          Scott_Tribe…..you and the rest of the Libs can keep talking about it but I can assure you and the rest of the anti Harper gang that the government has made the decision. No amount of name calling, ridicule, silly comments etc are going to change the fact that it is the government who makes the decision on the census…not the media, the elites, Liberals, NDP, the Bloc and those organizations that feed off the census trough. It is absolutely breathtaking to see the number of organizations who have been buying the information provided by Canadians over the years. This is the beginning of the end of the nanny state. Get used to it. So feel free to keep talking about it. You are only talking to yourselves which Wherry encourages with every blog that he writes about the census. Have fun.

    • Patchouli

      It's good to have a meme, and I see you stick to it quite well.

    • Charles H.

      "The discussion is over"? From the sounds of it, the discussion was never begun in the first place.

    • BGLong

      Put your hands over your ears, close your eyes real tight, and hold your breath.

      We'll pinch your cheeks when it's ok to stop.

    • NorthernPoV

      "the fact is the government has made its decision and for all intents and purposes the discussion is over"
      ya – take that you bullies – the Gov't has decided – ya, Harper-the-Decider has decided. so STFU

      come on – just like the de-financing of parties, he gave you plenty of warning, we had such a lenghty democratic discussion leading up to such a major game-changing move

      the way you insist on keeping up with this discussion – you'd think Harper had made this decision in secret, months ago and sprang it on us with no warning when he figured no one was looking and it was too late to reverse it.

      stop complaining and show some gratitude -

      • MostlyCivil

        Over? You mean like Adscam is over? You get over that, we'll start working on this.

    • Calgary Junkie

      The only thing remaining of interest on this issue, is how this plays out politically.

      Layton wants to have a debate in Parliament. I'm assuming there will also be some kind of motion tabled, and then voted on. One thing I will be watching for, is how united the leaders are in pressing the issue during Question Period.

      If Iggy, Gilles and Jack all lead off with census questions, say for a week, then that will be a strong indicator that THEY think this issue is a vote-winner. I will defer to their superior judgement, on what issues work best for them..

  • E_B_

    From a Conservative memo now circulating:

    “Clearly, Michael Ignatieff is out of touch with Northern Canadians…” says the memo. “Larry Bagnell will soon have a choice. Will he stand up for the people of Yukon, or will he vote with his leader to save a gun registry that by his own admission doesn’t make ‘any sense’? ”

    I'm curious as to whether any Conservative MP, anywhere, will stand up for the people of Canada who reject the change to the Census? Opposition to the changes are clearly significant. Is there not a single Conservative MP, who has noticed this?

  • Stewart_Smith

    The most recent EKOS poll was interesting. Although all this talk of a culture war is easy to dismiss… it does appear that the Conservatives have been successful in shifting the educational dynamic of their supporters. Whether it is a good long term strategy for them only time will tell.

  • Dee

    Why would Tony Clement meet with the Statistics Council? That sounds too suspiciously like Mr. Clement doing his job, as Industry Minister. He clearly doesn't want to do that…

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

    ok, ok, ok enough of the census. I'm bored of the census. Consensus says no census.

    Can someone please explain to me what an Adscam is.

  • Guest

    Harper's "War on Knowledge" appeals to the knee-scraping bible thumpers and all the doltish dumbed-down drones. What is so very sad is some of these sheep are actually too thick-witted to see how they are being used and manipulated. I guess that's the price one pays for bing like the Wizard of Oz scarecrow:

    "I would not be just a nuffin'
    My head all full of stuffin'
    My heart all full of pain
    I would dance and be merry
    Life would be a ding-a-derry
    If I only had a brain"

    • hollinm

      Guest….another board,another set of juvenile comments from you. We know it is tough to have something intelligent to say but try it. You may like it. On the other hand you may be too juvenile to really have something intelligent to say.

      You see two can play your silly game.

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