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Canada Reinstates Mandatory Census, To Delight of Social Scientists (sciencemag.org)
Eloking writes with news that the government of Liberal Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will be reinstating the mandatory long-form census that the outgoing government had ended. Science reports: "The new Canadian government today announced it would restore the country's mandatory long-form census. 'Our plan for open and fair government starts today with restoring the long-form census,' said Navdeep Bains, minister of innovation, science and economic development, speaking in Ottawa alongside Jean-Yves Duclos, minister of families, children and social development. 'We're focused on good evidence-based policies.' Bains said that Statistics Canada would be able to meet the 2 May deadline to roll out the 2016 census, which is conducted every 5 years, and that there would be no additional costs to making it mandatory. He confirmed that residents who fail to fill out the census could face criminal prosecution, an issue that contributed to the decision by the Harper government to make the 2011 census voluntary."
I think he is referring to the legal requirement to tell the government everything they want to know. But maybe not. I don't really know what's on the Canadian long form. If it is like the US it is mostly bunch of stuff the government already has access to (like income), but are too lazy to go get, and a bunch of stupid stuff like how many bathrooms are in your house.
If it's anything like the US long-form census, then most of the questions don't seem to have any bearing on policy. Who else lives in your house, where they used to live, the personal history of everyone in your house, down to everywhere they worked, exactly what type of work they did, how much land your house sits on, do you own a stove... It's all SPSS-fodder as far as I can tell.
Most of this stuff is already collected by the BLS, anyways.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
you should call for the immediate disbanding of the armed forces
Um, okay? Twist my arm, dude!
You not understanding the important of a census doesn't make you look to knowledgeable of this subject.
Hey now, the correct term is "African American Kettle", you insensitive bastard!
You've confused "usefulness" with "propriety" - You not understanding the role of government doesn't leave much room to lob criticism.
We deny our governments a great many "important" powers - Random searches and seizures; not needing to bother with all that burdensome proof of guilt stuff; not needing to put up with that pesky press or those damned people freely expressing their opinions about corruption; putting a soldier in every house; taking away people's guns (oh, right, Canada already did that one, but not like they then turned around and started stripping a defenseless population of other rights... Heeey, waitaminute!).
The convenience and utility of a given course of action do not automatically mean that we should allow that power to our governments under the guise of serving the people.