By Ray Rivers
May 6, 2016
BURLINGTON, ON
Does anyone remember why the Harper government decided to cancel the long form census in 2011 and replace it with a voluntary survey? It wasn’t to save money because, when adjusted for inflation, the 2011 census exercise cost more than its predecessor, the 2006 census. It wasn’t, as they argued at the time, about privacy. There had been no cases or serious complaints about census questions violating our rights to privacy. The Supreme Court had not charged the government to change how and what data it collects.
The law requires everyone to fill in the census form sent to them.
And it wasn’t to improve the quality or degree of information gathered. That is the information used by governments to influence a wide range of policy and program decisions, as well as the many private companies and organizations who had complained of the changes at the time. And those complaints were warranted, given the general conclusion that the 2011 census was largely a wasted exercise.
Doesn’t conservative have something to do with retaining tradition, and what could be more traditional and time honoured than establishing accurate census information. The first stock-taking in our nation’s history, in fact in North America, goes back to the one undertaken by the New France Intendant, Jean Talon, in 1666. As the Canadian colonies came together to form our nation, section 8 of the British North America Act required a ten-yearly census to be undertaken. So in 1871 the new confederation of four provinces conducted its first national census.
Reproduction of the cover page from what is seen as the first census – the Domsday Book.
The 1086 Domsday Book is heralded as the first census, though there are biblical era references to surveys conducted well before that time. Still, William the Conqueror’s effort to establish his rightful tax base and various property holdings across Great Britain holds its place in history and was only replicated some eight centuries later, in 1873, through the so-called Modern Domsday Book. The title itself had little to do with doom or disaster, but rather was a derivation of the old English word “doom” meaning law or judgement.
It may have been ‘Tea Party’ Ideology, a disdain for science and knowledge, or just a bone-headed mistake. One can only speculate as to why the former PM was so determined to fix something which wasn’t broken, in fact had been working well and serving us well.
Census map with population data
So one of the early actions of the new Liberal government was to give Statistics Canada the right to return to traditional data gathering with the 2016 census.
And Canadians have responded overwhelmingly, in fact overloading and crashing the census website with their enthusiasm, and their determination to be counted.
I received both the long and short form, went on line, and had them each completed on-line in a matter of a few minutes. And, as I recorded my confirmation number I couldn’t help asking myself – what was all the fuss about?
Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington where he ran as a Liberal against Cam Jackson in 1995, the year Mike Harris and the Common Sense Revolution swept the province. Rivers is no longer active with any political party.
Background links:
Wasted Effort Getting Less for More Canada’s Census History Canada’s Census –
Census Web Site Response to Return of Long Form Biblical Census –
Domesday Book, not “Doomsday”.
Editor’s note:
You are correct – we corrected a very common error. Thank you
The CON’s were all about pushing their agenda, not about good policy making. They didn’t care about facts, just lies to justify their position.
Given that Canadians were so excited to fill it out that, as you say, we crashed the system. It just goes to prove how out of touch Harper and his CON’s are with Canadian values.