Robert H. Coats, Sedley A. Cudmore, Herbert Marshall, Walter E. Duffett, Dominion Statistician, 1915-1942 Dominion Statistician, 1942-1945 Dominion Statistician, 1945-1956 Dominion Statistician, 1957-1972 Sylvia Ostry, Peter G. Kirkham, Martin B. Wilk, Ivan P. Fellegi, Chief Statistician of Canada, 1972-1975 Chief Statistician of Canada, 1975-1980 Chief Statistician of Canada, 1980-1985 Chief Statistician of Canada, 1985-2008 100 STANDING on the shoulders of GIANTS History of Statistics Canada: 1970 to 2008 INTRODUCTION A century has gone by since the Dominion Bureau of Statistics — later renamed Statistics Canada — was created. Much has changed since 1918, including the rapid evolution of technology and the emergence of an increasingly global society and economy. Statistics Canada has changed as well, enhancing our processing and analytical capabilities, and expanding our programs. Today, the agency’s reach extends from coast to coast to coast and far beyond, as we work with colleagues around the world. We continue to innovate. Now more than ever, we are focused on the needs of our users. We are adopting leading edge statistical methods, and collaborating with clients, stakeholders and partners. We are striving to meet Canadians’ evolving information needs, and using new tools and channels to make our data more accessible and engaging. Statistics Canada’s centennial is an opportunity to honour the generations of talented people who have brought the agency to where it is today. It is also a STATISTICS chance to celebrate what has remained consistent over time: the quality of our data, the dedication of our employees and most importantly, the value that we CANADA’S add to Canadians’ understanding of our society, environment and the economy. CENTENNIAL IS As we mark this milestone, Statistics Canada remains committed to providing Canadians with high-quality statistical information that matters. Together, we are AN OPPORTUNITY laying the groundwork for another remarkable century. TO HONOUR Anil Arora GENERATIONS OF Chief Statistician of Canada TALENTED PEOPLE 2 Chapter 1: Setting the stage and introducing the early 1970s FORWARD It has been a true privilege to have been bestowed the honour of writing the next chapter of Statistics Canada’s history. Sitting day after day in a somewhat chilly room at Library and Archives Canada, I methodically delved into the richness of our past — holding in my hands documents ranging from letters from Prime Ministers to mere transactional memos. I felt truly humbled —here I was, assembling a portrait of the great women and men who bit by bit, made Statistics Canada the world renowned institution it is today. Believe me when I say, that we truly stand on the shoulders of giants. It was definitely a challenge to assemble that “bit-by-bit” perspective into a narrative. I see this as analogous to how it can often be difficult to appreciate the value of our day-to-day work. It is only when we pause and stand back from the gallery walls, and look with greater perspective at our collective history, that we truly perceive the bigger picture to which we all contribute. To that end, when enough time has passed to allow for SITTING DAY AFTER sufficient objectivity, it will again be time to document the next chapter of the agency’s history. So take time to reflect and to celebrate, and to document your successes and DAY IN A SOMEWHAT your failures - for both of these help shape who we are and who we will become. CHILLY ROOM AT The people I met during this project helped shaped its outcome. From the kind and helpful folks in the Statistics Canada library and at Library and Archives Canada, to the LIBRARY AND external review board who generously donated their time to read my disjointed narratives and to patiently steer me in the right direction, to Dr. Wilk’s French teacher who I met while on holiday and who was moved to tears by his memories, to all the friendly folks in ARCHIVES CANADA, Communications and Dissemination Branch who always had a smile for this fish-out-of-water and who took this project to the finish line, thank you. I METHODICALLY I hope that I have done justice to the formidable task of illuminating our path from the DELVED INTO THE early 1970s through to the end of Dr. Fellegi’s tenure. RICHNESS OF Margaret Morris Statistics Canada OUR PAST Chapter 1: Setting the stage and introducing the early 1970s 3 The evolution of Canada’s national statistical agency . 6 The advent of statistics in Canada . 7 Statistics is an ancient calling 8 The first Year Book 9 Creation of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics 10 The West India Islands 10 In the twitter of the moment 11 Walter E. Duffett 12 Statistics Canada gets its name . 13 The “racy” new Statistics Canada 13 Statistics Canada’s population clock 13 A department in its own right 14 A major expansion in a time of great change . .. 15 The separatist movement and the October Crisis 15 The age of automation 17 The agency’s resident inventors 18 Conversion to bilingualism 19 Simon Abraham Goldberg 20 Equal opportunities for women 23 A sign of the times 23 Innovation at work 24 Employee news gets an overhaul 24 Notable milestones in the statistical program . 25 The onset of the National Accounts 30 The beginning of the Cold War in Canada 31 Flashback to early censuses 32 The Census program 33 The germination of sampling 33 On a clear day you can count forever 34 The international scene . 35 A more active role in sharing information . 38 A growing focus on timeliness 38 The introduction of a policy on official release 39 The changing of the guard . 40 CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER Setting the stage and introducing the early 1970 s THE EVOLUTION OF CANADA’S NATIONAL STATISTICAL AGENCY Historical works are excellent opportunities to peer into the past, not only to satisfy our curiosity about “the way things were,” but also to see how far we have come and to learn from the past. For Statistics Canada, such works are also opportunities to commemorate the agency’s contributions to Canada and its people. They also serve as a reminder that an institution such as Statistics Canada did not instantly materialize—it was shaped over many years by many influences, and it continues to evolve each and every day. Two relatively recent significant works have been authored on the history of Statistics Canada, the first of which was published in 1993: 75 Years and counting: A history of Statistics Canada. This publication covered the early beginnings and the first 75 years of the agency. Six years later, a more academically-oriented work was published: The Dominion Bureau of Statistics: A History of Canada’s Central Statistical Office and Its Antecedents 1841-1972. The latter, written by retired Assistant Chief Statistician David Worton, intertwined the agency’s story within the larger economic, political and social context of the times. True to common practice among historians, the story ends in the far enough past to allow for sufficient objectivity. Two decades later, in 2018, Statistics Canada celebrates its 100th birthday and, in honour of the occasion, has published this new work. Although not as academically oriented, it takes flight from where Mr. Worton left off and, after a brief synopsis of the early years, tells the story of the next 36 years, until 2008. 6 Chapter 1: Setting the stage and introducing the early 1970s THE ADVENT OF STATISTICS IN CANADA Canada celebrated the 150th anniversary of its The earliest counts are sourced from letters from confederation in 2017. Prior to Confederation, Jesuit missionaries written in 1611, and include statistical activity hinged around measuring the estimates of population and land by band. population to gauge the progress of European The first systematic enumeration of Indigenous colonization. The collection of statistics on people took place in the Census of 1871, which what is now known as Canada goes back to the counted 102,358 Indigenous persons. early 1600s, when Roman Catholic missionaries The first known systematic enumeration of collected data on births, deaths, and marriages the colony population in Canada was first of early European settlers. In fact, one can go conducted in the winter of 1666–1667 by the back as far as the year 1605 by delving into first Intendant of New France, Jean Talon, records of European settlement at Port Royal, who ironically, was later to be granted the title or by pouring through the writings of French of count—Count d’Orsainville. He counted explorer Samuel de Champlain and missionary 3,215 European settlers in the three settled Gabriel Sagard. In the data gleaned from these districts of Quebec, Trois-Rivières, and historical records, deaths exceeded births until Ville-Marie (or Montréal). Jean Talon took this about 1638. Thereafter, the population grew— count on the request of the Sun King, Louis XIV, Jean Talon, Canada’s first official statistician in fact, a history of Statistics Canada written who desired to know how many people the in 1952 quite matter-of-factly pronounces that colony contained after the more than “indeed, the French Canadian population has 50 years of its existence. He recorded all people be sent from France. This resulted always been remarkable for its high rate of persons in the colony by name, age, occupation, in the immigration of about 1,000 women natural increase.” conjugal status, and relationship to the head (“filles du roi”), who were to become the Of course, the original occupants of the land we of the family. He also measured the wealth wives of the men already in the colony.