phranque - 1:31 pm on Mar 6, 2013 (gmt 0)

i shudder and look for a solution based on http protocol whenever matt or john use the following or similar weasel words:
- "we might decide not to"
- "(we) select what we think is 'best'"
- "we'll do our best too take this into account"

the proper solution requires no beneficence on the part of google to get the intended url indexed with minimal loss of link equity.
respond with a cookie and a 301 to the canonical url.
there is no "might" or "think" involved.
no waiting around for G to "take things into account" (or not).
no link rel canonical required since you are there already and no GWT parameter magic since there are no parameters in the canonical url.