Tony Clement's census complaints: the proof is in the tweets

Industry Minister Tony Clement says he is hearing from Canadians on Twitter who are grateful the government has chosen to scrap the mandatory long-form census. And he's got proof.

We thought Maxime Bernier, who was Industry Minister back in 2006, had proof after saying he got 1000 emails a day complaining about the census, but it turns out he says he didn't actually keep any of the complaints.

Clement is up to...six people. Well, in all fairness at the time of this writing, he had tweeted about six complaints. Perhaps there are hundreds more that he has yet to reveal. To date, he says Leo Flemming, Julius, Adam, Patrick, Paul and Chris have all written in with their support "from this unwarranted intrusion & coercion".

Now, politicians do often name individuals when trying to show they are talking to *real* Canadians and, of course, listening to them. My goodness, look at how famous "Joe the Plumber" became during the last American election just for asking Barack Obama a business tax question. Joe later became synonymous with middle-America for the Republican campaign.

Perhaps, Julius, Adam or Patrick will be to the census debate what Joe was to the US election. In the meantime, we would love to hear from any and all of those complaining directly to Clement. So, Patrick or Julius or Paul or Chris, if you're listening...we await.