Before Ed Fast’s boss, Stephen Harper, starts quoting at length from this years National Household Survey in order to convince us all how much better we’re doing, Fast should read and pass on a piece in Friday’s Globe and Mail about the devastating damage the Harper government’s attacks on Statistics Canada and the scientific community have caused.
We are now, in effect, adrift in a sea of misinformation where the one who screams the loudest is most likely to get his or her point of view across. Harper will use as much of our money as he can get away with in order ensure he has the biggest megaphone.
Some, more reasonable, non-partisan and educated Canadians need to be made aware of this travesty and join the conversation before the next election.
Read the excerpts from the Globe below, click on the links in order to read the whole piece and then act. Tell your MP you expect better from your government.
Canada’s voluntary census is worthless. Here’s why
[excerpt] In short, all the good news from the NHS [National Household Survey] is nonsense.The sad thing is that the news is now “official.” It comes from official government of Canada statistics. It will, no doubt, be used in partisan ways. It will be used to confuse the debate about the growing gap between rich and poor. It will be used to make it appear that Canada is becoming more equal, when the opposite is happening.
The voluntary nature of the NHS was controversial from the start. Can a voluntary survey ever substitute for a mandatory census? In July 2010 the head of Statistics Canada, Munir Sheikh, who was appointed to that position in 2008 by Mr. Harper, issued a short answer with his resignation: “It can not.”
Mr. Sheikh noted that he had no choice but to resign because he “always honoured” his “oath and responsibilities as a public servant as well as those specific to the Statistics Act.” It turns out that he is the one in the debate with the Prime Minister who was ‘right’ and the one who acted ‘honourably’ on our behalf.
The income data in the National Household Survey is not valid. It should not be used or cited. It should be withdrawn. The 2016 census should be restored to the non-politicized, non-partisan scientific methodology that existed prior to the flawed 2011 National Household Survey.
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Authors: David Hulchanski, Robert Murdie, Alan Walks and Larry Bourne