The Past Speaks

I am reposting this message from Kris Inwood, University of Guelph.

“Click here to sign Petition 1 <http://www.savestatcan.ca/petition1.aspx> calling for restoration of the arms length status of Statscan.

The Harper government decided in July to replace the census long form with a voluntary survey.

The consequences are vast. The methodology for taking non-mandatory surveys uses census information.
Health, education, and many other sorts of statistics will be affected. This includes the CPI via its household expenditure weights.

Also, this is the 1st time the party in power has explicitly violated Statscan’s de facto arms length status.

Is a future where the party forming the government can remake our national statistics acceptable?

The financial community mistrusts the statistics of nations where politicians can remake the numbers.

Ivan Fellegi-Chief Statistician of Canada for 18 years, David Dodge-the
former Governor of the Bank of Canada, and two former Clerks of the
Privy Council implore us in their open letter to restore Statscan’s arms
length status. Read their letter and more at http://www.savestatcan.ca/.

To see the hundreds of organizations against this change, visit
http://datalibre.ca/census-watch/

Please help roll back these changes. Spread the word. Spread the petitions.

This battle is not lost until those affected give up.

Thanks! Mel (Mel Mc Millan, Economics
http://www.economics.ualberta.ca/faculty_mel_mcmillan.cfm )
and Alice (Alice Nakamura, School of Business
http://apps.business.ualberta.ca/anakamura/ )

/PS: Signing matters most, but pasting in a bio or a brief message will help press people write about this.”