Short-form census makes debut Monday
April 28, 2011

Toronto Star
By Bruce Campion-Smith

Briefly:

"It’s controversial, political divisive and could have a lasting effect on how Canadians see their country. And it’s not Monday’s election. It’s the census and missing this year are the detailed long-form questionnaires that have helped many corners of Canadian society plan for the future. Yet many experts warn that the loss of the mandatory long-form census — and its questions on education, employment and commuting habits — risks leaving Canadians in the dark about their changing lifestyles and trends.

“That’s my firm belief,” said Ivan Fellegi, who served as chief statistician at Statistics Canada for 23 years. “But more important than that, we will not only have less knowledge about ourselves, we will have the wrong knowledge about ourselves because we won’t know what’s right and what’s wrong."