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Stats Canada has put out an interesting set of numbers that makes me wonder what "Conservatism" actually means in Canada. My thumbnail sketch would mean smaller government lower taxes (although in Canada that is all relative, I am sure my views border on Communism if I lived in the U.S.). The numbers put out suggest that governments at all levels are still a "growing concern".

Public sector employment
	Third quarter 2005	Fourth quarter 2005	Third quarter 2006	Fourth quarter 2006
	thousands
Public sector	2,886	3,031	2,932	3,075
Government	2,621	2,771	2,667	2,815
General government	1,123	1,102	1,150	1,113
Federal	370	372	386	380
Provincial and territorial	357	344	359	346
Local	395	385	405	387

Now the numbers do bounce around a little at the Federal level, but still the Federal government is larger than it was last year at that time, so it is getting bigger. This might explain why there are so many NEW housing developments here in Ottawa.

A more interesting question is what about the aging Civil Service? A great many of them are close to retirement, and the Civil Service Pension Plan is very nice. This begs the question, what happens when all of these folk retire? Will there jobs simply disappear (might be the case in some areas), or will their work be dumped on existing folks (likely too), OR will we suddenly have another "hiring binge" in Ottawa (also possible)? Stay tuned folks. --C8j

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