This article in the Globe and Mail this am attempts to define the importance of the census to everyone. What interests me is that the Prime Minister, who controls just about everything that goes on in the government, didn’t either know this – and he’s an economist by education – or is so ideologically driven that it doesn’t matter to him. The census has been in place officially in the areas formerly under British control on a recurring basis since 1841. The US does their census on the 10’s and is even older. A census is not a survey or a poll. It’s a counting procedure and is vital to almost everyone who has to make a decision based on fact not imagination.
Or perhaps that’s the problem, all those uncomfortable facts.
writingthoughts 
The prime minister does not control ‘just about everything that goes on in the government’. The office has its set roles and functions and the individual elected to take seat in the office can influence those functions based on whatever stresses he or she feels like making or that he or she has the backing of the political party to make. The census is a survey and is the most comprehensive means to understand basic majorities, minorities, and trends in a country’s pluralist citizenry.
Try reading Jean-Paul Gagnon, John Keane, and basically any other political theorist to understand political institutions like the census or the office of the prime minister appropriately.
The tight hold that Harper has over all aspects of his ministers, caucus, the PMO is well known. I gather we agree on the importance of the census, which is meant to be an actual count, not a survey (investigate the opinions or experience of (a group of people) by asking them questions.