The Politics of the Census: Lessons from Abroad

Abstract

In late June, Minister of Industry Tony Clement announced the government's decision to elimin ate the mandatory long form of the 2011 Census and replace it with a voluntary survey to be sent to one-third of Canadian households. decision was reportedly made by Prime Minister Stephen Harper last December and has largely been framed by Conservative cabinet ministers as an import ant change to safeguard the privacy of Canadians. They maintain that the state has no business in the bedrooms of society, or, more specifically, that the state has no business asking Canadians how many bedrooms they have in their places of residence. Prime Minister's Office has stated, The government made this decision because we do not believe Canadians should be forced, under threat of fines, jail, or both, to disclose extensive private and personal (Valpy 2010). Clement, the minister responsible for Statistics Canada, argued before a parliamentary committee on 27 July that though the information gathered in the long form is valuable, a balance must be drawn between collecting data and the privacy rights of Canadians.