# You fill out my Census (Canada 2016 version) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 3, 2016, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784 "2016-05-03T15:57:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/1 "2016-05-03T15:57:43Z")
It’s that time again folks. In true spirit of people who long for law, order and good government we [crashed the servers](https://www.buzzfeed.com/craigsilverman/census-so-lit?utm_term=.imQQVxg0K6#.qnEjXoDEJO)😃 [CBC link](http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/census-2016-nerds-1.3563808). Go Canada! Show Harper that we LIKE having information collected that is used for various planning events. So I was going to fill it out this morning, the website seemed to be working, but I need a few details from folks that I can’t confirm until this evening. I still have 7 days to do it. Does anyone know how my roommate/friend has to answer re: gender. She was assigned male at birth. But she hasn’t had her gender marker changed yet. Any legal type Canadians want to give me the 411 on this? When I posted [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=13776073#post13776073) 5 years ago, I was living in Ontario. Now I am in BC. My address is more complicated this year, but not as complicated as\*\* Muffin’s\*\* was in 2011. And the obligatory link to [Annie’s Song](https://youtu.be/C21G2OkHEYo) ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/2 "2016-05-03T16:37:52Z")
Oops. Sorry. I did mine last night in about 2 minutes, so I guess I may have contributed to the crash. Dunno about the gender thing. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/3 "2016-05-03T16:46:55Z")
Okay, a bit of googling later: The StatsCan guide to filling out the census states, immediately before the gender question: > [@](#): > > The following questions refer to each person’s situation on May 10, 2016, unless otherwise specified. That would suggest anyone who’s legally changed their gender would put their new one, but otherwise their birth gender. However, it turns out someone in a similar situation had the same question: [CBC article](http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/quinn-nelson-transgender-canadians-census-1.3392218) about a transgender person who objected to the binary question in the first place, and StatsCan responded by suggesting simply not answering the gender question and explaining in the optional comment section. So there you go. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/4 "2016-05-03T17:01:39Z")
I won’t be able to finish my census by May 10 because I’ll be nowhere near my home and mailbox until after that. Does that mean I’m going to get locked up in the clink? ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/5 "2016-05-03T17:31:06Z")
Can you get someone to check your mail and send you the 16 digit secure access code? But actually, the answer is NO one lived at that house on May 10th. There is probably a census form for where you are actually living, and I believe you should be reflected on that form. For details www.census.gc.ca Government Of Canada Census Information phone #1-855-700-2016. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/6 "2016-05-03T17:35:38Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Does that mean I’m going to get locked up in the clink? Free Room and Board! 😃 No, not incentive enough? ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/7 "2016-05-03T18:31:58Z")
> [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](#): > > Free Room and Board! 😃 No, not incentive enough? Well, it’s a heavy board and a stout man wielding it… ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/8 "2016-05-04T01:53:42Z")
I was hoping to get the long-form census. If enough of us get together, we could skew the statistics so that the average Canadian appears to have 3.2 legs and own a llama. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/9 "2016-05-04T02:13:24Z")
You fill out my census like a night in the forest, like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain, like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean. You fill out my census, come fill me again. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/10 "2016-05-04T02:17:41Z")
> [@Gorsnak](#): > > Oops. Sorry. I did mine last night in about 2 minutes, so I guess I may have contributed to the crash. Dunno about the gender thing. you do your taxes in mid-March, you do your census the first day - who you trying to suck up to in the federal government? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/11 "2016-05-04T02:23:45Z")
Huff Post is Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered by Canadians and the census: [Canada’s Census Is Back And Canadians Are Losing Their S\*\*t](http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/05/03/canadas-census-is-back-an_n_9829320.html): > [@](#): > > liking maple syrup, loving hockey and enjoying free healthcare. > > But being excited about data gathering? That’s a new one. > > And yet that’s what the world will think when it gazes upon these selfies that Canadians took with their census forms, positively elated over having to fill out a mandatory government form. What follows is a long string of selfies and twitter posts by Canadians excited over the Return of the Census! > [@](#): > > SeanFitz\_Gerald ✔@SeanFitz\_Gerald > Just called someone for an interview. > > “Hey Sean, can I call you right back? I’m filling out the census.” > > Canadians, man. ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/12 "2016-05-04T03:12:59Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > You fill out my census like a night in the forest, > like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain, > like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean. > You fill out my census, come fill me again. 😉 Yes. My every five year pun thread title. Catch you in 2021 ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/13 "2016-05-04T03:19:42Z")
The census is always fun. My wife and I got counted in USA, Chile and Bolivia in one decade, so when you see the population of the world, subtract four from the number, to be perfectly accurate. Two teenage girls enumerated us in a hotel in Bolivia, they thought it was a great lark. Yes, it was legitimate,we had no fixed address anywhere else. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/14 "2016-05-04T03:27:32Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > you do your taxes in mid-March, you do your census the first day - who you trying to suck up to in the federal government? 😉 That young Justin is sooooo dreamy! ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/15 "2016-05-04T03:28:59Z")
Mrs Piper, surfing her Facebook page: “[Piper Friend] got the Long-form census! Dang it! Lucky guy - I want to get it!” ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/16 "2016-05-04T09:10:15Z")
How can you tell which version you received? Mine had people, language, employment, education, housing. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/17 "2016-05-04T10:59:59Z")
We haven’t done ours yet, but I gather the short form has about 10 questions, and the long form has about 40. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/18 "2016-05-04T11:13:51Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Huff Post is Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered by Canadians and the census: > [Canada’s Census Is Back And Canadians Are Losing Their S\*\*t](http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/05/03/canadas-census-is-back-an_n_9829320.html): > > What follows is a long string of selfies and twitter posts by Canadians excited over the Return of the Census! Heh. One of the few negatives I see to having gone back from the lines of the self-employed to those of the third-party employed is that I won’t get to fill INE’s yearly PYMEs polls (their poll for small companies). I liked seeing what questions they’d come up with this time, thinking of ways they could be used, and having that large “comments” section where I could berate the designer for using something which didn’t really match the Spanish legal framework (some of the polls seemed to be almost a direct translation of something created for the US). Apparently they liked my feedback, as they kept asking for more. This thread reminded me to send them the form where I stop being self-employed. Awwww… ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Me](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mr.Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Me)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/19 "2016-05-04T12:20:38Z")
> [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](#): > > And the obligatory link to [Annie’s Song](https://youtu.be/C21G2OkHEYo) “Blocked in your country”:dubious: [Census](https://d.facdn.net/art/maxgoof/music/1266285160/1266285160.maxgoof_census.mp3), the parody version, fits better anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Esox\_Lucius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2016, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784/20 "2016-05-04T20:34:57Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Mrs Piper, surfing her Facebook page: “[Piper Friend] got the Long-form census! Dang it! Lucky guy - I want to get it!” For some reason, I found myself feeling the same way. In the past I couldn’t have been less interested in the census. Maybe it’s a political reaction to the Harper years. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-fill-out-my-census-canada-2016-version/753784.md?page=2)