Ralph Goodale Sums Up the Reform-Conservatives Nicely

Ralph Goodale has explained very nicely the reasons for the census change, as well as clearly outlining the history of the Harper government ignoring facts, and attacking anyone who disagrees with them.

Thomas Walkom also points out the hypocrisy of this government:

Industry Minister Tony Clement says he’s axing the mandatory questionnaire because the state has no right to demand intrusive information, such as the number of bedrooms in a home. Yet his is the same government that requires airlines to collect and hand over detailed personal information on everyone who flies – and then give much of it to a foreign state.

It’s also the government that last month transformed downtown Toronto into an armed camp, where police arbitrarily stopped and searched people going about their lawful business and then—equally arbitrarily—arrested and jailed scores more. Until forced by the courts last year, Harper’s “non-intrusive” government used all of its power to keep Canadian citizen Abousfian Abdelrazik from returning to Canada.

Once Abdelrazik (who has been charged with no crime in any country) did return, this government intruded into his life to deny him the most basic rights: to work, to earn an income, to open a bank account. So no. The Harper government is not libertarian. It has used the full muscle of the state to walk over the civil and constitutional rights of those it purports to represent.

Or maybe they are just using the census to deflect attention away from the billions spent for the G-20, the billions being spent on military jets and the billions being wasted on tougher crime measures, when Canada's crime rate continues to decline.

Everything's a game.