By David@Sixthestate.net As usual, the moment StatsCan’s monthly jobs survey numbers go even slightly squirrelly, the media proves utterly unable to handle it. Last week, Canadians were variously told that the employment rate was unchanged, that the job market was in bad shape, and that the job market was doing unexpectedly well. Incidentally, we were […]
Life In Canada’s Small Government Dystopia
By David@Sixthestate.net The following post is deliberately alarmist. Orwellian, you might say. I’m not trying to paint a picture of what things are like in Canada right now, or even what I think they’ll be like in the near future. I’m not an idiot. But I do want to paint a picture of the sort […]
Lies, damned lies, and statistics on Canada’s poverty rate
First published on The Sixth Estate Recently the National Post’s resident anti-government wingnut, William Watson, sallied forth with a strangely positive report on what he calls Canada’s poverty rate, which he says has fallen to an all-time low of 9%. This, says Watson, means we should keep going pretty much as we have, meaning less […]
The census dilemma
By Alison@Creekside Do we fill it in nicely to show our solidarity with StatsCan and their important data-gathering, currently under siege by the Cons, or do we fill it in using really big crayons and attached pictures of cluster bomb victims to protest its having been farmed out once again to war profiteer and surveillance/espionage […]
Chopping StatsCan
By Alison@Creekside Who didn’t see this coming? CP: Statistics Canada is cutting five of its surveys after being told by the federal government to chop its budget by $7 million. The surveys include environmental and business statistics, and are in addition to other belt-tightening at the troubled agency. As Pogge blogged back in July: “Harper […]
