Via Aaron Wherry, a non-random sampling of opposition to the government’s plan to defile the Census:

To those who oppose the government’s changes to the census you can now add the Statistical Society of Canada, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the Canadian Marketing Association, the Canadian Federation of Francophone and Acadian Communities, the Executive Council of the Canadian Economics Association, the director of the Prentice Institute at the University of Lethbridge, the senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the Canadian Institute of Planners, the Canadian Association for Business Economics, and the editorial boards of the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, Calgary Herald, Winnipeg Free Press and Globe and Mail.

They join the co-chairman of the Canada Census Committee, Ancestry.ca, city planners in Calgary and Red Deer, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, the former head of Statistics Canada, and the editorial boards of the Toronto Star, Montreal Gazette, Edmonton Journal and Victoria Times-Colonist.

And hot off the presses, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario has sent Clement an open letter decrying the move. Also, Pundits Guide talks about how the Census is used, and Susan Delacourt finds it a wee bit odd that a political party which probably knows your voting record, ethnicity, and favourite TV show has issues with Stats Canada collecting Census information. Colby Cosh does link to one of the few supporters of the government’s decision…and promptly rips him a new one.

Meanwhile, Tony Clement has yet to offer up an explanation over 140 characters for his decision, focusing instead on more important issues.