The changes to the long form questionnaire, a part of the Canadian Census mailed out to 1 in 5 households, are openly ideological. The interesting bit is how the ideology is misunderstood. The Globe and Mail has been calling the move a "socially conservative" one, and this media interpretation has, no doubt, influenced those who support it, and those who denounce it.
This move is ultimately about individual liberties, and as such, it is a socially liberal move. A note to the social conservatives towing the line - if you endorse this position, you must also endorse gay marriage, and legalization - to be logically consistent. I have a feeling this notion might leave supporters of the change shifting in their cowboy boots.
As for the libertarians - the only group whose ideology directly aligns with this change, I have one thing to say: if you are willing to tolerate the myriad of interventions that follow from a government that appropriates >40% of the wealth of our country, should they not be informed interventions? Good Government (if that is possible) is an effective business cycle stabilizer, far more effective than ramp-up stimulus spending. It seems to me that the data collection should be the last thing to go. Get rid of the rest: the superfluous jet fighter purchases, the entrenched labor regulations, the anachronistic immigration policies, and then get rid of the data collection. I guess I'm more concerned with efficiency than dejure liberties, as long as defacto, we still have them.
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