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The People Want The Census
Filed Under (Federal Politics, Politics) by LibVin on 25-07-2010

At least, according to Vision Critical. See here [PDF] for full report.

In the online survey of a representative sample of 1,012 Canadians, almost half of respondents (47%) oppose the federal government’s decision to scrap the mandatory long form census, while 38 per cent support it. Opposition to the federal government’s move is highest in Ontario (54%) and British Columbia (53%).

The federal government has argued that the long form census is intrusive and Canadians should not be forced to answer it. Only one-in-four Canadians (24%) agree with this assessment, while a large majority (58%) think the long form census yields data that is important to make policy decisions in all areas of public service, and should remain mandatory.

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Comments:
3 Comments posted on "The People Want The Census"
Tomm on July 25th, 2010 at 8:29 AM #

The people also want free ice cream, freedom from work.

The census is instrusive. If you get the long form, fill it out. But why is it a statistician’s choice in Ottawa whether you HAVE to fill it out?

What business is it of the state to know your sexual orientation? who does the work in your house? or what “ethnic group” you came from? Wouldn’t it be nice if we were all just Canadian’s?

One other thing… Just because you do a poll doesn’t mean “the people”.


Fred from BC on July 25th, 2010 at 7:29 PM #

Tomm on July 25th, 2010 at 8:29 AM #

The people also want free ice cream, freedom from work.

Absolutely. Good thing the country isn’t governed by polls, or we might be in the same financial situation as California. Part of being a leader is making decisions…some of which will no doubt be unpopular.


LibVin on July 25th, 2010 at 7:43 PM #

Fred, the decision is unpopular and bad.
Tomm, you are misrepresenting the census. It isn’t the specific details on an individual person that statisticians care about. Or if you–and I mean you–have thirty or zero bathrooms. Ottawa and the bureaucrats there care about the trends and the general movements of things in Canada. To put the argument into the single, individual sense is making a severe misrepresentation of what the census actually does.
Next, it’s anonymous. If you don’t want to give your name the census takers accepts pseudonyms and, well, any name you damn well please. A single individual’s identification is unimportant to the census. Again, let me repeat this, it’s anonymous and people are protected.
These general trends in addition to anonymity, in addition to the maddening level of privacy protections by StatsCan, makes both your point and Harper’s actions irrevocably idiotic.
So your perceived ‘threat’ of big-bad-Ottawa is misplaced in addition to being a misrepresentation of the facts of the matter.
And I call bull shit on the call of being “just all Canadians.” We are all individuals, with our own minds, and our own needs/desires. To downgrade that complexity in favor of nationalistic platitudes to both foolhardy and self-destructive. So toss the rhetoric and stick to the facts, Tomm.

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