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Originally Posted by WilsonFourTwo
Kind of fyp.
I think most people "Sort of" care. But as you eluded to, only a tiny group of people really see this as a big deal. This is certainly NOT an election issue.
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Here's something most people don't understand about politics. Politics functions according to "narratives" that get constructed around certain public figures in the media--and once a "narrative" is built it's very difficult to change it. Look at the 2008 election, where no matter what John McCain did he was portrayed as "old and out of touch," and the "data-rich" aspects of the stories that he was trying to get out there didn't matter at all.
What this means in practice is that Harper needs to avoid doing things that reinforce an existing negative narrative about him. It doesn't actually matter "how much" people care (though actually, polls show that quite a few people care a lot) about the census issue. What matters is that Harper's handling of the census issue reinforces an existing negative narrative about him wherein he is intractable and autocratic, and has a tendency to overstep his mandate.
What this means is that even people who don't care a whole lot about the census issue per se, feel negatively disposed toward to Harper because of it. And when the election comes around, some of them won't remember why, but many of them will still feel that negative emotional response toward him.
Make no mistake: this is a huge political blunder from a person who until now has been a very savvy operator. I guess it was only a matter of time before he screwed up, but I'm surprised he did it over this kind of issue. He'd have been better off leaving it alone, and I'm surprised he didn't understand that. He's usually smarter.