I believe that L Ian MacDonald said it best, when he described the ongoing census controversy as “only in a country with no problems, namely Canada, could a controversy over census forms become the top news story out of the capital.”
Now the Hill Times has an article about how the Conservative government’s decision to change the mandatory long form census into something elective, has affected the “morale” within the Statistics Canada department.
Am I supposed to care about how public sector bureaucrats feel about their job? This pearl-clutching melodrama has been going on for a month now, and every subsequent opinion piece on the story gets less and less interesting.
You’d think we were discussing something where morale is actually important, such as the attitude of our troops in the field of combat. But no, we’re talking about pencil-pushing number-counters in their public sector union-protected pension-indexed 17-sick-days-a-year bureaucratic jobs. The only thing less interesting than what these people think or feel is Chelsea Clinton’s royal wedding.
Here’s a tip for the princesses lying on peas in Stats Canada: a large majority of Canadians go to work every single day with low morale. They don’t like their jobs. They’d rather be doing something else. They’re forced to do difficult tasks for far too long, and for far too little pay. But not one of these people gets a newspaper article written about how difficult life is for them. No, they suck it up, and work paycheque to paycheque.
If they don’t like their jobs, the solution is simple. Join Munir Sheikh on the unemployment line, or better yet, find a job in the private sector. Life isn’t candies and double rainbows all the time.
People don’t care if, while my company is trying to build a new condo in downtown Vancouver, that the materials we ordered are all wrong, that it’s making the job much more difficult, and that the project is so behind schedule that they’re asking us to work beyond the limits of our capabilities. And they don’t care because it isn’t important. Neither is a story about the “morale” of statisticians.
Yeah, so your job has become more difficult. Deal with it. My window frame is 1/8″ out of square. Deal with it.
The martyrdom and self-flagellation over this census “crisis” might be the reason behind why 50% of the population doesn’t vote. For a country with so few real problems, it can’t really matter who is in power.
The only people who care are the Media and the Snivel Servants, and frankly what doesn’t upset civil servants these days?
A friend of mine works for Stats Can, her only qualification is she speaks french but can’t read or write in English. Yep no post secondary education atall.
*thumbs up* Adrian…well said.
I’m confused. You don’t like to hear what I have to say.
I put it up on facebook. I liked this article. lol – day by day I guess…seething at you one moment and patting you on the back the next…
The media is desperately trying to give this story legs. Hence this latest pathetic sob-story. What’s next … Sheikh’s son had his calculator stolen at school, and the suspect is Rachel Harper ?
Time is running out for the coalition of statists, as the long forms go to print on Aug 8th.
I would have thought that Jack could mobilize his union buddies and hold some solidarity rallies for their statscan brothers and sisters ? Surely that would have sent the message that only the Dippers really and truly care for the downtrodden public servants, unlike those Bay Street Liberals ?
Anyway, let’s see what the Premiers have to say, in their meeting next week.
The long form census is so critical to the Premiers, it’s NOT on the official agenda.
sigh – it is so bizarre to be lamenting the fate of these bloated, pension-indexed, politicized entitlists – and for the lieberal party to cover their non-policy ass with this gibberish is disgusting. There must be no journalists of any integrity left
An excellent post!
Good luck with caulking your window an 1/8th; maybe our silly servants should do a little caulking ….there’s a joke in there somewhere.. :>)
Couldn’t have said it better. I generally like to read L.Ian’s opinion pieces. This one seemed to start o.k. – give advice, implement policy – but got way off track. Why should I care if they are happy with policy & what does that have to do with democracy? I didn’t vote for any of the bureaucrats. A few more resignations would be nice. I wonder if the average Cdn would care? They have plenty of perks and benefits the average Canadian would be happy to have.
It is really amazing how the MSM has attempted to whip this into a major scandal.
Really , if you don’t wish to fill out the long form … fine … for those screaming lefties who think they are somehow being deprived of freedom … then fill in the form 100% , be content and smug and SHUT UP !
The real issue is why don’t the special interest groups go pay for their own surveys which are derived from voluntary disclosure.
Slow news month, that’s all. I doubt this will move polls one way or another.
Everyone seems to agree that threatening to throw someone in jail for refusing to tell the government how many hours you spent doing housework in a week is excessive.
The data from the long form is 2 years old by the time it is distributed.
If McGuinty is making critical decisions from a survey done every 5 years, and 2 years old when he gets it, sure explains why Ontario is a have not province now.
That’s why the BoC does not use the data,
that’s why established businesses don’t use the data… too old to be of any value.
What purpose is the 2006 census right now?
2010, been thru a deep recession, people move….
Took a look at the Toronto Star today, something I haven’t done in a long long time,
they ran a poll on the long form,
and to my surprise 31% of their super-leftie-Harper-hating readership agreed with the government…
I will cry over the plight of a government worker when…ah, when…when…oh hell, I can’t think of any reason to cry for them.
The Hill Times article was so ‘over the top’, you have to wonder what they’d do if they were confronted with a real ‘loss’. Think about the two pilots who died trying to put out fires in BC. Their co-workers are mourning today and some elected to take the day off. I think we can all sympathize with them. Come tomorrow they’ll be back at it.
The Stats Can workers need to give their heads a shake.
Where are the thousands of protestors on Parliament Hill and at Queen’s Park in Toronto a la G-20? Where is OCAP and Sid Ryan to disrupt the innocent citizens over this horrible miscarriage of Union and Communist justice. Where are the multi-service police from across the country being trained to combat these dissenters. This is certainly a cause to protest which is more local and more Canadian than being simply against the leaders of the world.
I guess the best Prime Minister we have ever had in 100 years is not worthy of such vehement protests. Or maybe these disrupters and nihilists are all on vacation in their Socialist havens alongside the unaware. Or maybe they realise that many European Governments are eliminating their census altogether or minimising it to a greater extent than Canada has ever contemplated.
Accept the resignation of these unloyal silly servants and be done with them, regardless of any righteeous claim they may have. If a new government wishes to repeal this so-called onerous census dictum ,then they are still free to do so. Absolutely nothing shall be lost.
Nothing from nothing leaves nothing….
Syncro
“Nothing from nothing leaves nothing…”
Hmmm.that should be the name of the Liberals new platform.
Meanwhile somewhere on a lonely highway, with his shirt tucked firmly into his briefs, Mr Ignatieff contemplates…….. “The Long Form” that most perfect piece of beurocratic snooping ever devised.
Eleswhere in our Dominion a Civil servant cries, forsaken of the Power to incarcerate Canadians, for refusing to answer silly, intrusive questions.
So sad perhaps more “paid holidays” a trip to a spa a soothing message, would ease their wrinkled brows.
Begs the question if a civil servant wails in the forest, if their morale is affected, does any taxpayer care?
1 overpaid poohbah quit, 5,999 to go. When I think of all the jobs I have done the thousands of miles travelled a year, from one job to another, some good some bad some ugly, who gave a damm about my morale. Suck it up you overpaid twinkies, the MSM might be howling, we just don’t care.
We have the best PM in my lifetime, if you can’t handle that just shut up! Or better quit and get a real job.
Does anyone remember when soon to be PMSH said, with the senate in control of the libs, and the civil servants supporting libs, he could not implement all those items of his hidden agenda the media and opposition said he had.
Words to that effect, he warned us and the media laughed. Guess he was right and the civil servants are now coming out and saying, we are in charge, what we say is law and you must implement it. They did their best to undermine the PM and have failed and are now crying in their beer that dion/iggy didn’t vote no confidence to have a quick election to get back to the trough.
Let them all resign and hire qualified people.
Affirmative action and political correctness must go the way of the dodo bird.