- Munir Sheikh - All the Right (Morally) Stuff.

7/22/2010 10:31:40 AM
Statistics Canada chief falls on sword over census, Steven Chase and Tavia Grant, Jul. 21, 2010
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/statistics-canada-chief-falls-on-sword-over-census/article1647348/Tab 245

Munir Sheikh resigning goes to keeping Statscan's integrity intact and he should be applauded for that.

It is not just the confidence in the information that Statscan releases that is at stake here. It is the confidence in Statcan as a trustworthy agency. Harper, Clement and the Cons' are tainting it with their political hyper-partisanship.

Mr. Sheikh's resignation at least shows Canadians that Statscan may not be supporting this change and trying to resist the political interference. Or, another way of looking at it is that Harper and the Con's have not yet corrupted Statscan. And, that is a very important point.

However, it is just a matter of time and a few well chosen political appointments and job placements. The unfortunate thing is that Mr. Sheikh's resignation may simply accelerate the process, since now the top job is open. And you can be sure, even if Harper convoked a secret panel to choose, that it will be a hyper-partizan appointment.

It is Tony Clement that should resign and every person in Canada (except the 33% core of die-hard supporters of Harper and the Con's with epi-centre in Alberta that will support Harper no matter what) that shoudl stand up, be counted and demand Clement's resignation. Better yet for Canada as a nation, give Harper and the Con's the boot.


Statscan performs a very important function, and it is one of the unifying forces in Canada, especially given our regional and cultural diversity and economic extremes. It helps to keep our politicians honest by keeping us anchored to truth and reality. Now we can start to see why Harper wants to undermine its reliability.

Statscan has also enjoyed an impeccable reputation up until now.

We must not let Harper destroy it with their political interference and purely partizan approach to everything.

You can be assured that Harper is doing this (changing the census) for the benefit of a small group of people - his core of die-hard supporters, with epi-centre Alberta (Stelmach seems to be the only Premier that supports it - ask Statscan what the chances are of that being a co-incidence), Canada be damned.

Lloyd MacILquham cicblog.com/comments.html