On to Plan B

I'll admit to having overestimated the Cons' willingness to listen to reason - and as a result, we probably are at the point where it's worth looking at legislation to save the long form census rather than working solely on getting the federal cabinet to reverse its decision.

That said, I'll still point back to my earlier post to highlight the obstacles to getting a private member's bill passed - including the lengthy timelines to deal with legislation in the House of Commons, and the Cons' Senate majority which will be able to stop any bill in its tracks.

Hopefully those won't be insurmountable before the point next spring when it's actually too late to reverse the changes for the 2011 census. But in order to have any hope of cleaning up the Harper government's vandalism, the opposition parties will need to both stay focused on the issue, and use every available opportunity to pressure the Cons to allow the bill to move forward. And if anybody is under the illusion that merely introducing the bill will accomplish anything useful without loads of followup work, then we may as well resign ourselves to the joys of Vague Hunches Canada now.