If there’s one thing that Canadian politics is good for (and maybe there is just one) it’s the introduction of new and fun terms to our collective lexicon. Remember our pre-Olympic love affair with the stodgy term prorogation? Ah, those were good times, listening to newscaster fumble over that unnecessarily complicated word, grasping at straws to try and explain how in the heck it was even legal, nevermind moral to just up and cancel Parliament.
But if you’re a political junkie like me you love these kind of moments in the Sun. Your heart skips a beat when the popular press picks up on a new polispeak word and runs with it. Well, friends, it’s happened again.
This time in the news is the long form census. What a beautiful thing! But what isn’t so beautiful is why it’s in the news.
If you follow the 90’s TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation then you’ll know that the gentleman in the picture above is Data, an android that features prominently on the USS Enterprise, the spaceship on which the show is based. Like any good android, however, Data has an evil side, too.
When tackling a topic like the long form census, there is a lot of talk around good and bad data and this is really what it all boils down to: Bad Data.
See, up to the present, the government has issued the census in a couple of different forms: the normal census form that everyone completes which asks things like age, sex, language, etc. and the long form which asks things like country of origin, income, education, and housing status. In the past, about eighty percent of Canadians filled out the normal census form while a select group of twenty percent filled out the long form.
From both forms comes a wealth of good data and information which the government uses but the long form is especially useful. Information from the long form census helps the government to plan things like schools, hospitals, child care programs and to better direct funding. The reason why the term long form has been in the news recently? The government wants to make this form voluntary.
Indeed, up until now those that received the long form census to complete had to complete it, by law. But citing too much involvement by the government in the affairs of Canadians, Industry Minister Tony Clement has decried the long form census and moved to make it voluntary.
The problems with making the long form census voluntary are quite easy to discover. Any statistician will tell you that with a voluntary survey the results will be highly skewed. Libertarians and the anti-big government people who support this kind of a move won’t be represented on the census. Neither will people who are busy (read: all Canadians) and don’t have time to fill out a voluntary form. And if voter turn-out is any indication of the sense of civic duty that Canadians have then we’re in trouble. Who would take the time to fill out a long form census—out of a sense of duty to their country and their community—if they don’t even vote on a regular basis.
In my opinion, scraping the compulsory long form census is a bad idea. My friend who’s an Urban Planning student assured me that the reliance on the long form census data is no small thing. How are we going to know where to put fire stations? He asked. And if misuse of the information is part of the government’s concern, my friend assured me that he has to sign his life away to access census data, as does anyone who wishes to access that information.
I don’t think it’s political to say that Prime Minister Stephen Harper likes to govern from the hip. In his Canada, the puck stops on his stick and its his decision whether or not to shoot for goal. And it’s clear that decisions like this are made by him and directed by him and these kinds of decisions—made in the middle of the night behind closed doors—are his preferred way of doing things. I’m trying not to make a value judgment on that, it is what it is. But in a liberal democracy Canadians can demand more, if they choose. By all rights the decision to do away with the mandatory long form census was a political decision. It was certainly not a decision made by Statistics Canada nor by any other well-informed and education group responsible for collecting or using this kind of survey data. I’m writing this article because I think awareness needs to be raised and discussion needs to be had—because that’s where I stand.
If you’re interested, there’s a lot you can do. The Facebook group Canadians for Good Data is alive with options for recourse and discussion. You can follow Industry Minister Tony Clement on Twitter and respond to him there, he’s very active and approachable. And you can write a letter to him, postage free:
Office of the Honourable Tony Clement Minister of Industry
C.D. Howe Building
235 Queen Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0H5
I do, indeed, love learning a new political term but I wish it wasn’t always on such poor terms. If you’re like me and support good Data, then get informed and take part in the evolving discussion.
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