Emphasis mine. Damn right.
Thank you, I had not seen this news. 
I have never seen anyone get so excited about a census form . . .
Clement has now admitted that he did not like the idea of cancelling the census in the first place.
“Collectively”. Ha! The cancellation of the census had Harper’s fingerprints all over it. Eliminate actual data, and then you can say whatever you want. Especially after you shut those darn scientists and statisticians up!
It’s not a “census form” issue, it’s a census information issue. It was a big political issue at the time, and for the same very good reason that the census itself is a big deal: it’s fundamental to all social and community planning at all levels of government.
We’re Canadian.
It’s sort of like when the ice starts to melt at the end of “Frozen”!
Now they’re allowed to talk about how the ice is melting.
When Catherine McKenna, the new Minister of Environment and Climate Change, was asked about the significance of adding “climate change” to the title, those were almost her exact words. In one momentous election, climate change has gone from “no such thing” to being an explicit and integral part of environmental policymaking.
I think a great Harper-era story was when there was a minor earthquake near Ottawa, and the press could get nobody from the Geological Survey of Canada who was allowed to say one single word on camera or to a reporter. They were all under the uniform gag order that the Harper Government had put on them.
The press had to to to the US Geological Survey, where they were able to find AMERICAN scientists who were allowed to speak to the press about the Ottawa quake.
Personally, I find the Ministry name change quite annoying. I know climate change is an important issue but this seems like unseemly pandering.
I can understand that perspective. There’s something to be said for tradition. At MIT, computer science came under the umbrella of the department of electrical engineering for decades, until they finally deigned to rename it to “Electrical Engineering and Computer Science”. Meanwhile almost all other universities had established distinct computer science departments.
But here’s the counter argument. There comes a point where a particular aspect of some field or policy matter outgrows its original boundaries. In politics image is important. You can hardly put that kind of label on a ministerial role and then fail to make climate commitments, nor can a future government rescind the label without having to explain why. And if at some point in the future it becomes common to have separate departments for the environment and for climate change because of the growing importance of the latter, this move will be seen as prescient.
That example does not sound like any argument for tradition.
It is not unseemly pandering unless they give it the name and then don’t actually do anything about climate change. You know, like happened with “Homeland Security.”
But do you really expect that, from this government?
Why was the Geological Survey under a gag order? Earthquakes have nothing to do with climate change . . . nor with anything else that is politically controversial, AFAIK. (Of course, I have heard of a theory that fracking causes/facilitates earthquakes, or something like that, which would be politically controversial.)
Yeah, I get it, changing the paper-towel roll is more excitement than you can bear . . . you get all worked up in anticipation and then you have post-paper-towel-roll-change-letdown afterwards . . . 
I don’t. Speaking of which, do you know how hard it is to get the good people of Montana to understand the concept, never mind serve, fries and gravy?
I do.
It wasn’t that they, specifically, were under gag order, it was that all government-employed scientists were.
It is probably hard to get the good people of Montana to understand most concepts that do not involve mining or microbrewing or snow-skiing, but that’s another discussion . . .
Even in such relatively sophisticated places as Baltimore, Maryland, it can be a problem. I once ordered fries with gravy there and got chicken gravy! :mad:
You mean, government-employed scientists under Harper could not talk to the press at all, about anything?! Seriously?!