Perhaps the phrase ‘homeless count’ causes people to assume that the purpose – and therefore design – of the homeless count is to count all the homeless and it is that erroneous assumption that leads to the utterance of utter nonsense such as:
“Earlier this year, a homeless count found a dramatic increase in homelessness across the region from three years ago, including a 79 per cent increase in Abbotsford.
The Shorter – 1 of 2
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.” Mark Twain
Twain attributed the quote to British politician Disraeli but researchers have concluded that the phrase originally appeared in 1895 in an article by Leonard H. Courtney. Ironically Mark Twain is credited with saying that “it isn’t what we don’t know that causes problems but what we know for sure – that ain’t so”.
The fault lies not with the science of statistics but with what we know about statistics that ain’t so. .
‘If I’m guilty of anything, it’s changing my mind,’
What a banal way to make an action that calls to mind words such as renege, weasel, forsake, apostatise – sound almost noble.
Before we rush to knight Speaker Plecas for gallantry let us consider a few facts.
“I don’t really want to get into the specifics because she’s gone, let her leave with grace. You don’t have to beat people up.”
With that statement MLA Darryl certainly provided a notable example of Orwellian Newspeak.
To make that statement after having, at length, denounced Christy Clark for having no “moral compass’; of not “always trying to do the right thing” but of making decisions “with political calculations front-of-mind”; and of having “$6 billion of surpluses and not [be] doing things for people in need”; is hypocrisy wrapped in insincerity.
While one cannot say, at this point in time, what the final costs of Horgan’s Folly will be, or how painful paying for the removal of tolls will be, one can say the costs and pain of removing the Port Mann tolls will be felt long after the political popularity purchased by removing the tolls is gone.
