Apples and Oranges?

I have just sent the following email to Statistics Canada:

Clarification of Table 1-3
1 message

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The Watcher (albertaalliancewatch)	Mon, Jan 29, 2007 at 4:32 PM
To: infostats@statcan.ca
I am writing to you to seek clarification on the data presented in Table 1-3. Do the public sector employment numbers presented in this table represent: the number of persons employed by the various provincial governments; the number of persons employed by the federal government working in the province; or the number of persons employed by both provincial and federal governments working in the province? When I use the term "government", I am using it in a wide sense, and intend to include employees of any respective boards, agencies, or Crown corporations that could be considered part of the public sector. Thank you in advance for any assistance you can provide. -- Regards, The Watcher

The anonymous commenter on this post has suggested I am comparing apples and oranges. However, the commenter has provided no evidence as to why their interpretation of the data is correct. This is one of the reasons why I suspect the commenter is from the Alberta Alliance - no corroboration for any assertions made.

The other reason I suspect our anonymous friend is AAP is that they refer to Alberta Alliance leader Paul Hinman simply as "Paul".

A tad friendly for someone with no propinquity to Hinman.

But, let's get back to the issue at hand.

In order for the commenter to be correct, Saskatchewan would have to be a major centre for the federal government. After all, according to Table 1-3, Saskatchewan has more public sector employees per capita than any other province. On its face, this assertion is absurd. How can Saskatchwan have more federal government employees per capita than Ontario or Quebec, where the government is in fact physically located?

So, I have sound reasons for questioning the assertions made by the commenter. When we hear back from Statistics Canada, we'll see if we have apples and oranges ...

... or if somebody will be eating crow.