Leaders discovered they were short by a factor of 10. The rude awakening prompted the government to invest in public health and stem infant mortality. It was the beginning of sophisticated, evidence-based decision-making in government for the benefit of the people.
In its first act of policy-making, the Liberal government announced Thursday that Statistics sa国际传媒 would reinstate the mandatory long-form census after it was scrapped by the Tories in 2010 in favour of an optional household survey.
With 25 per cent fewer respondents, statisticians warned the value of the data collected from the survey was questionable to the point of being useless.
Whether it was scrapped to satisfy the more paranoid, libertarian branches of the party or to confound critics who used data to challenge the Conservatives鈥� agenda, we鈥檙e glad to see our mini-Dark Ages of governing from the hip are over.
Filling out the census is a civic duty on the same level as paying taxes and voting. Big, expensive decisions are being made and we want to be sure we鈥檙e on the right track.
We hope this move marks the return to evidence-based decisions in Ottawa. When it comes to our time and our money, vague guesses simply won鈥檛 cut it.
North Shore News
