Making Sense of the Census

The Mark Radio ep.25: Four of The Mark's contributors reflect on what the scrapping of the mandatory long-form census means to Canada and Canadians.

Canada is known for doing a few things really well: hockey, pancake toppings, and statistics. StatsCan is widely regarded as one of the world's leading statistical agencies, and its central duty is to take the census every five years. Since the first official census in 1666, Canada has gone from a colony of 3,200 to a nation of 34 million. It paints a picture of the Canadian population: what we do, where we live, and who we are.

But now the census is in crisis. Citing privacy concerns, the Harper government wants to move from a mandatory long-form census to a voluntary one. Critics of the shift worry that a voluntary census will skew the data's accuracy and will effectively gut StatsCan's sterling international reputation.

On the show this week, you'll hear from four Canadian experts dissecting the census:

First up, Paul Saurette, associate professor of Political Science at the University of Ottawa on what he thinks is behind the scrapping of the mandatory census.

Former Chief Statistician Ivan Fellegi, on where StatsCan goes from here.

Pundit and political strategist Warren Kinsella, on why the census is too intrusive.

Finally, former head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Linda Keen, on how it feels to be a civil servant in the government's crosshairs.

(Run-time: 30 minutes.)