A creepily-catchy YouTube sing-along census defence

I honestly don't know what to make of this, but it certainly shows some people can unleash their pent-up creative energy on literally anything.

It's almost like there was a competition calling on people to squeeze as much fun out of the most boring song subject matter (the threat of the mandatory long-form census's demise) and longtime Toronto NDP organizer and gay-rights activist John Campey -- accompanied by his merry "Data Hounds" -- won. Good on them for that achievement, at the very least. 

If listened to over and over (as I have done for the past 20 minutes) the tune becomes creepily catchy. It sounds like something a California cult would come up with after spending a decade analyzing the first verse of The Beatles' "She Loves You" and Mamas & the Papas' studio outtakes to capture their signature acoustic recruitment brainwave trigger-hook. It's no Pet Sounds, but it's got something.

And I have no idea what's going on with Mr. Blurry-Face in the back row, but it just heightens the awesome strangeness of it all.

UPDATE: In an interview, John Campey says the song came out of an "emergency sing-along appeal" to a bunch of friends from all political stripes (except for the Bloc, he notes) "who just like to sing."

"It's not partisan," insists Campey, executive director of the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto, who describes the decision to end the mandatory census as "apocalyptic."

He says the data gathered from the census is "the foundation for the work we do" in determining what services are need for seniors, housing, immigration settlements and youth outreach.

"Otherwise, you're really planning in the dark," he says.

As for the blurred face, Campey says there was a good reason the singer didn't want to be identified.

"That's the Tory," he says.

UPDATE-UPDATE: Aw, man! I knew the tune sounded familiar, but didn't realize it was taken from Gary Lewis & the Playboys' song of the same name. Some music nerd I turned out to be.