A-huh. The slipper slope argument. "If we allow gay marriage, it will lead to cats marrying dogs and infant children marrying goats, there will be world wide chaos and then we will all die". Come on. Reasonable people can see that there are shades of grey. Stats has working groups that work with the public to ensure that there is a balance between respondent burden and required data PLUS STC works with the Privacy Commissioner to again assure a balance between required data and the privacy requirements of the public. How many bedrooms you have in your home passes, how often you slap the monkey, well, does not.
Bunk: That is EXACTLY what the Liberal bill says. Remove the archaic unused jail provision, and leave the fine.
Azure: What concrete steps did the Conservatives take to get Canada through the recession?
I think fotze brings up an interesting point and it is WHY this is unsettling to the people in the East. I don't know why you would think the Conservatives would be strict on wanting information and the Liberals not so much. I think most would agree that a primary plank of the Reform party, from which Harper came, was individual freedom. We are each the designer of our own destiny. For example, they were against nationalized daycare, but for daycare credits. Liberals on the other hand have historically been for curbing individual freedoms for the sake of the greater good to society. Some call it the nanny-state, I prefer to put it as Hillary did - it takes a village to raise a child.
The other side to this is that under Chretien and Martin, federal government spending and government decisions were being driven by Statistics Canada data. STC data was being used at the highest levels for justifying almost all major decisions. While in power, they were happy to be known to be making decisions based on the best available data. Unfortunately for them Stats had no data on why it was bad to give money to your friends in Quebec. On the flip side, the Conservatives have not been using our data and often say the exact opposite of what our data says. For example, they want to spend billions on getting tough on crime and Day comes out and says that crime is running rampant and that crime rates are going up across the country. Our data actually shows the exact opposite. The Conservatives are run by their agenda, their politics, their values and beliefs.... it's very much the Colbert "I don't like facts, my gut tells me everything I need to know."
So it's not the long vs short form that is making people question the Conservative government. In general, people don't care. But what people do care about is whether the government of the day is striking the right balance between societal need and our need for personal freedom (and the poll numbers would suggest that most do not feel that the giving of some personal information is a significant infringement given the benefit to the country) and they also care that the government is making decisions for the right reasons (is the government making decisions such as with the new crime bill because the facts back them up, or is it pandering to a base?).
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