South of the border, the headlines are about a catastrophic oil spill, a looming showdown with North Korea, a stubbornly moribund economy and the cost of Chelsea's wedding.

Up here, we apparently have nothing better to stir a summer snit than the national census. Who knew how controversial a countrywide head count could be? Certainly not Stephen Harper's Conservative government, which finds itself under attack for a move they thought might have a certain appeal as a step to limit government prying into the private lives of Canadians.

So, in the doldrums of a hummer of a summer weather-wise, the bothersome dark political cloud that forms concerns the federal government's plan to make the long form for next year's census no longer legally compulsory to complete for the 20 percent of households that receive it. Not that there was ever a long list of prosecutions for those who did not for whatever reason reply to the string of 60 questions.

From the point of view of the Conservatives, forcing citizens to answer questions about their lifestyle and habits is intrusive, heavy-handed and anathema to the small-government philosophy of Stephen Harper, who, despite all that, has allowed the federal deficit get very big.

Critics say (and not everyone agrees) that the gentle force of law is necessary to compel people to complete the form and generate accurate and useful data for everything from provincial social-program design to native-health-care strategy.

When the Conservatives announced the planned change to the census last month, they could not have anticipated how treasured the deep data Statistics Canada collects apparently is to so many interested parties. Indeed, out of the socio-political woodwork charged a phalanx of groups claiming their function draws essential sustenance from the information the census gathers. That includes the Stats Can administration itself, the head of which found it necessary to resign in protest.

In the wake of the furor, the government has maintained its resolve to dump the legally binding long form and replace it with an optional domestic-household survey. The minister responsible for Stats Can, Tony Clement, didn't buckle when summoned to a parliamentary committee hearing this week for a grilling by MPs. Nevertheless, as summer tempests go, the Conservatives have unleashed a nasty little twister that may come to haunt them once Parliament resumes in September.

And, in preparing for that reconvening of the House of Commons, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has been conducting what you might call his own long-form census — voluntary, of course. Ignatieff, sometimes ridiculed for being an aloof intellectual and dubbed the Count because of his aristocratic Russian ancestry, has embarked on a cross-Canada tour by bus to get in touch with ordinary Canadians.

Surprisingly, the press coverage of the "Liberal Express" has been more glowing than Ignatieff and his handlers could have imagined. One wag quipped that the top Grit actually did not look like a "dork" when, sporting a tractor cap, he cracked a cold one with the real peeps down on the farm. Contrast that with the media's cruel mockery of Harper when he donned a cowboy hat and stretched a leather vest across his paunch for a Calgary Stampede event a few years ago.

Liberal insiders say Ignatieff's summer pulse-taking is as much about making their guy ready for a looming election campaign as it is about him rubbing elbows with folks. Ignatieff has not exactly exploded in the polls since he seized the party leadership in late 2008. That's thanks in part to periodic Conservative TV campaigns to paint the former globe-trotting author, historian and commentator as a stranger to Canadians. The summer tour puts not only his people skills, but his stump stamina to the test.

With an accumulation of various gripes against the Conservatives — the latest being the census flap and the staggering cost of security for the G8/G20 summits — there is a pungent whiff of fall election in the air. All it would take is for Ignatieff and the Liberals to decide to enlist the already hungering other opposition parties to defeat the government once the House returns.

Should that be the case, Canadians may soon enough find themselves being polled, surveyed and solicited far beyond any measly census. And there's no talk about making it illegal to not vote.

Peter Black is a radio broadcaster and writer based in Quebec City. He has worked on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, in Montreal as a newspaper reporter and editor, and as a translator and freelance writer.