I am posting this on behalf of a colleague from Victoria B.C., Ian Faris, an employee with Statistics Canada for 20 years, and now a research analyst and member of the Canadian Social Data Consortium. The data consortium is organized to “liberate” census and related data at a modest fee for city planners, public health bodies, school boards, health districts, police and community-based agencies in municipalities across the country. The Canadian Council on Social Development has facilitated this process for the past two cycles of the Census, and keeps us connected with one another.

Virtually every story about the census over the last couple of days has included some mention of the fact that the Cons' gutted version is "scheduled to go to the printers" on August 9, with some implication that the date will serve as a cutoff for any possible changes.

Soilwork, "20 More Miles"

I have an op-ed in today’s Toronto Star.  The piece stems largely from a policy paper I wrote on homelessness earlier this year, and that I blogged about here.

I suppose there's enough news value in the fact that a federal leader is actually signalling some openness to an election that I can't blame the Mark for its headline attached to Jack Layton's interview. But the real story looks to me to be Layton's message on the outcome of an election when it happens:

THE EMBRO TRUCK AND TRACTOR PULL Hosted by Oxford County Junior Farmers, The Embro truck and Tractor pull is the 5th generation of this annual event. Funds raised through the event will be earmarked for usage by many local to Oxford community organizations for community betterment. The event runs until 6 pm today and is located at the corner of  county of oxford Road 6(west of Woodstock) (Huron Street) and County Road 33 (Road 78), Embro, Ontario.Further details may be gleaned from the organizations' website....http://www.embrotractorpull.com/<

After hot start, big chill hits Canadian and U.S. economic recoveries - thestar.com

OTTAWA - The economy’s great slowdown from the initial fast recovery continued in May with a second consecutive month of underwhelming output that raised more questions about the Bank of Canada’s decision to raise interest rates.

Taliban Says It Will Target Names Exposed by WikiLeaks The U.S. military has already accused WikiLeaks of having "the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family" on its hands after leaking 92,000 classified documents. The Taliban has now confirmed it is poring through the documents, and intends to hunt down and punish any suspected spies named.

It seems the Conservative government now concedes Jack Layton was on to something when he suggested we open a line of communication with the Taliban to end the decade-long war in Afghanistan. Of course, you won’t hear the Conservatives telling it that way.

Lawrence Cannon, Canada’s Minister of  Foreign Affairs, quietly announced this week that our government wants to engage the Taliban and others in a “reconciliation process that is inclusive of all Afghans, no matter their ethnicity.”