Well, I refuse to believe that the damage is done. I believe we can move forward with this, and in fact there's an incredible silver lining here. All of the groups that have spoken in favour of the long form of the census in the data, and Statistics Canada in general, have shown a tremendous vote of confidence in what they have done. Canadians are more than ever aware of the data that's provided and its importance to society, the economy, small business, and so on. I believe that if the mandatory long form of the census returns, we will get pretty much the same response rate that we've had in the past, which is 99% or so.
On July 27th, 2010. See this statement in context.