"I want to take this opportunity to comment on a technical statistical issue which has become the subject of media discussion. This relates to the question of whether a voluntary survey can become a substitute for a mandatory census.Cue ShamWow Tony from last Friday :
It can not.
Under the circumstances, I have tendered my resignation to the Prime Minister."
StatsCan recommended move to voluntary census, Tony Clement says
“So I went to StatsCan. They’re the experts. I said to Stats Canada, ‘Give us some options. Is there a way that we can have a balance, get the data that everyone hankers for . .Tony Clement is using the word "everybody" to mean the word "Steve" here. "Hankers" is a Canadian heavy metal band.
"He said he asked whether the voluntary survey would produce “robust” data.
Stats Canada replied “in no uncertain terms, ‘Yes, it would give us the data that everybody hankers for.’ ”
But Sheikh's resignation must have come as a big shock to Tony, given that he got around 10 supportive tweets from his 3500 followers about gutting the census (h/t Aaron Wherry) in this G&M interview yesterday.
In the same interview Tony said Sheikh would be making a statement today "to assure Canadians that Statscan is going to do its job".
And Mr. Sheikh did indeed come through for us today. Hats off to you, sir.
Reuters :
"Some Statistics Canada employees have complained to the media that the Conservatives have cut or curtailed several major surveys since the party took power in 2006 in an effort to reduce the amount of analysis the agency does."... because pesky facts and science and analysis get in the way of the Cons making shit up.
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Thursday update : Munir Sheikh's letter of resignation taken down from StatsCan website.
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