The man who recently quit as Canada's chief statistician is urging the government one last time to save the mandatory long-form census.

In an opinion article published in Tuesday's Globe and Mail, Munir Sheikh, the former head of Statistics Canada, proposes a simple, very low-tech solution. He recommends that the long form of the census, when it is sent out in 2011, be accompanied by a note from Statscan saying whether filling out the form is mandatory or voluntary, depending on which policy the government finally adopts.

Read the entire Globe and Mail article here.