When Are the Members of Harper's Caucus Going to Stand up to Him?

I used to like Maxime Bernier. I never agreed with his Libertarian views but he was usually naively honest.

He was the first to suggest that the War in Afghanistan was for drugs not democracy, and stated publicly that his party was committed to reducing government and hence social programs.

Not politically wise, but he was who he was.

So why has he suddenly resorted to lying? First he claimed that he received thousands of complaints about the long-form census, then changed his story when the facts were presented.

And his continued effort to support Harper's decision, despite opposition from across the country, is further diminishing his integrity.

Now we find that Bernier has always been in favour of the long-form census.

One of the biggest opponents of the long-form census within the Harper government actually defended the mandatory survey as an "essential" tool for Canadian society when he was industry minister, according to a newly released letter. "Most of the questions that appeared on the 2006 Census long-form have appeared on many censuses," Maxime Bernier wrote in a letter dated Aug. 21,
2006, as minister responsible for Statistics Canada.

"These questions continue to be essential for providing the information needed by governments, businesses, researchers and individual Canadians to shed light on issues of concern to all of us — employment, education, training, transportation, housing, immigration, income support, pensions for seniors, transfer payments, aboriginal issues and many more."

Is he so enamored with Stephen Harper that he will completely destroy himself? Has he been whipped into compliance?

I don't know what our little dictator has, but demagogues everywhere must be...well ... agog.