Ottawa

‘The common good against the individual good’

While the minister manages to both lament the intrusiveness of the census and encourage you to cooperate with next year’s “survey,” you can add TD Bank’s Don Drummond and the director of Toronto Public Health to the list of those who oppose the change. In addition to calling for an amendment to the Statistics Act, the Liberals want the industry committee recalled to deal with the issue.

The CBC’s David McKie, meanwhile, offers a review of the matter.

Currie says just because people dislike completing forms, doesn’t mean governments should let them off the hook. “People objected to seatbelts. People object to legislation on anti-smoking. They object to the legislation on cell-phone use in cars. But we do things for the common good. We have to measure the common good against the individual good. Nobody says we should cut out jury duty and not have it obligatory. And no one says we should cut out the census except the minister.”

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