Editor:

John Weston mentioned in your paper (Coast Reporter, Aug. 6) that he had received no emails criticizing the cancellation of the mandatory long form census. Well, I was one of those who never wrote to him. Why bother? If 200 organizations including all sorts of business groups, religious groups, labour groups and provinces couldn’t shift the course of the Good Ship Ideology, what hope would little old me in Roberts Creek have had?

As it was, there were only three groups that supported the Conservatives on this. Predictably the Fraser Institute as well as the Taxpayers Federation were on board. These seem to be the only kinds of voices that count (pun intended). Why should I care?

Well, as a result of the census decision, we will have unreliable statistics that can be manipulated to support ideas such as doubling our prison budgets to house all the unknown and undocumented perpetrators of unreported crimes.

It puzzles me that Weston thinks that because he saw no emails opposing the cancellation of the mandatory long form census that this is meaningful. Are there statistics on the reasons for these unsent emails? Are they like the invisible statistics on the increase in unreported crimes?

Just wondering?

Sharon Oddie Brown

Roberts Creek