long form

The federal government was preparing last December to deal with the “the prime minister’s decision” to do away with the long-form census.

Tony Clement takes on the worldwide statistical conspiracy.

Statistics Canada documents show how, and by who, the long-form census was used.

Stephen Gordon points to four essays on the census from the current issue of Canadian Public Policy. Separately, he himself takes on the idea that a voluntary census will provide more truthful responses.

The Liberals have set out legislation they will propose when Parliament returns next month that would be effectively enshrine a mandatory long-form census. The full text of the proposed bill is here. The Statistics Act would also be amended to eliminate the threat of prison for non-compliance.

Five weeks after his government’s decision was announced, the Prime Minister explains the move to a voluntary long-form census.

The Industry Minister has claimed that 160,000 Canadians “refused” to complete the long-form census in 2006. Statistics Canada now says 275,000 households failed to return a short-form census and 160,000 failed to return the long form, but only that census officials were unable to “make contact” with the majority of those households.