Looking back at the issue, Harper never seemed really sensitive or zealous about privacy issues in the past, at least around ones that accepted widely. Nor did he seem to gain any sort of strategic advantage out the debate --- polls showed support for the mandatory long-form census at margins even larger than opposition to Conservative party-- and even amongst the privacy advocates, their support on this issue was less vocal than the pro-MLFCensus crowd's calls for. So why did Harper go out of his way to create an issue at which he lost strategic points on? No matter what you think of Harper, you must admit he and his inner circle are skilled political operators -- not a crowd prone to do things without reason so why?
Did he simply underestimate the backlash?
Has this been a personal pet project of one of the inner-circle members?
Is he deliberatly trying to fog up a lens at whihc social programs are constructed around, so that future gov'ts will be more cautious when building up big social programs?
Something else?
Did he simply underestimate the backlash?
Has this been a personal pet project of one of the inner-circle members?
Is he deliberatly trying to fog up a lens at whihc social programs are constructed around, so that future gov'ts will be more cautious when building up big social programs?
Something else?