Truthiness

Once again, the Tories feel that they are entitled to make up "facts".

During the fixed election campaign, the PC platform made the following, demonstrably false, claim:

A Progressive Conservative government in its second term will:

• demand that the Government of Canada situate more federal offices and jobs in Newfoundland and Labrador, which has fewer per capita than any other province

No one — well, almost no one — called the lying liars out on that lie.

Today, the lying liars are at it again, this time in the person of lying Tom Hedderson:

He said the number of federal employees in this province has dropped by 25 per cent in the last 10 years or so.

Ummmm.... no.

In the "last ten years" for which statistics (StatsCan Table 183-0002) are available, between March 1997 and March 2007, the number of federal employees in Newfoundland and Labrador dropped by 6.5%. 6.5%, in case Hedderson isn't quite clear on the mathematical principles involved, is less than 25%.

Of course, this "drop" is, in part, the result of Hedderson being permitted to choose his own data set. If he's allowed to do that.... then so is anyone.

So, how about this statistic, which, unlike Hedderson's and Danny's, isn't made up: between January 2002 and March 2007, the number of federal civil servants in Newfoundland and Labrador increased by 13%, from 6,500 to 7,350.

Remember, Cliff, Jamie, just because Danny or one of Danny's Minions says it, doesn't mean it's true.