I have become obsessed with the upcoming Canadian election. Despite the fact that I’ve already voted, I still can’t stop reading the editorials and projections. And I desperately want to write about the election…but I can’t.

I feel like it’s impossible to write about politics without some sort of bias and my scientific career is based heavily on avoiding bias. Not one day goes by where I don’t have to consider ways of reducing bias in my analyses (not personal bias, statistical bias). So, though I really want to write about politics, I can’t because, for me, it’s kind of like going over to the dark side.

But it shouldn’t be that way. There are actual facts on the ground–a lot of them. Facts that everyone should agree on regardless of what party they vote for or support. In fact, I should list a number of those right here…but I can’t.

Why not? Because what if I list facts disparaging one party more than the others? Isn’t that a type of bias too? I guess I could list facts disparaging all parties equally, but what if one party broke more rules, broke more promises and implemented worse policies? How would I ever decide the right number of facts to include about each party without appealing to my values which, I admit, I might not share with everyone.

That’s why I’m not going to write about politics. But I am going to say that not all pieces of political information are created equal. At the made up end of the spectrum you have some of the rhetoric that the party leaders spew on a daily basis and at the other end of the spectrum you have policies that have been implemented, words on record, long-form censuses that have been abolished, non-elected government bodies have been abused–damn, I knew I couldn’t hold out for a whole post.

Just remember, not everything is spin. Some facts, even political ones, are verifiable and we should keep those facts separate.

And for my Canadian readers, you don’t have to vote but giving up your right to vote on Monday means giving up your right to complain until the next election.