A Canadian organization is urging people to boycott their census questionnaire because Lockheed-Martin, an American company that manufactures, among other things, weapons systems, is handling part of the outsourcing work on the census. According to the group's website, their efforts may have succeeded and Lockheed-Martin may not be doing the 2006 census.

A bit ironic, no? Anyone remember the big scandal over the Iraqi reconstruction contracts? The U.S. limited bidding on Iraqi reconstruction contracts to nations that contributed to the effort in Iraq and everyone was quite angry, especially Canadians. "Shocking," said Canadian Deputy Prime Minister John Manley. "Very difficult to fathom," said PM Paul Martin. Bush eventually relented and let Canadian companies (but not French or German ones) bid for those contracts. It seems that financial dealings with the American military-industrial complex are not so bad as long as its a Canadian company that gets the deal.