What to fear re: Harper’s Long Form revision of Canada

These are the things to fear:

Eliminating the long form census is a systemic step towards making decisions with less information.

It is a decision that supports ignorance over knowledge.

Fear this decision because it is subtle yet far reaching.

This is a perfect example of Harper’s use of populist sentiment (I.e. we don’t want to bother Canadians with that pesky intrusion of Government into thier private time & information) to kite an erosion of the Canada that more than 70% of us recognize is good for us.

Diversity is a fact in our society that we need to know as much about as possible IF we want to accomodate it AND thrive through it.

Fear Harper on this because it is an act that is carefully considered.

This is not a straight forward rejection of complexity. It is a move that is made with full understanding of it’s complex implications and a bet that you are too dumb or too busy to care.

This move is not intended to advance the interests of Canada but to appeal to your lowest common denominator sensibilities (who wants to give up more info and time to government? Not me!) and, under cover of ignorance, advance a prescriptive alternative vision of Canada.

This is an alternative that little by little is giving you a minority view of how Canada “should” be rather than striving to accomodate and design for who we are and how we have been evolving.

Witness Harper’s fine art in the politics of obscurity vs. the demand and trend toward transparency.