On Monday, the Black Rod posted an excellent piece, Free Press Fairy Tales and Fish Stories. He details a few of the errors that they've made in the recent past with headlines and facts. Which is why this piece in the Winnipeg Free Press today is hilarious.

The headline reads "Manitoba winning war with Alberta", with the byline "Many who headed west returning home". Talk about an attention-getting headline, I didn't even know we were at war with Alberta!

Here's a summary of the statistics backing up the headline:

Alberta's net gain from other provinces is still big, 11,813 in the last three months of 2006 alone. But the rate of growth appears to be slowing. In the last three months of 2005, Alberta had a net gain of 17,059.

Manitoba, on the other hand, lost 24,548 people to other provinces in 2006, and only gained 16,718, posting a net loss of 7,830.

No more mention of Alberta vs Manitoba stats, that's it. Can somebody PLEASE, PLEASE explain to me how a net LOSS of 7,830 OVER A YEAR is better than a net GAIN of over 17,000 in THREE MONTHS?

Labels: Fun With Polls, Manitoba, Winnipeg Free Press