Canadian statistics: evidence for enlightened democracy

A distinguishing feature of the Scottish Enlightenment was its emphasis on participatory democracy. Believing that political power belonged to its citizens, Scotland promoted literacy to enable all Scots to debate and decide the issues of the day. An ocean away and more than two centuries later, Statistics Canada informs and educates Canadian citizens to help them take part fully in the life of their nation. To this end, the organization has created a range of public good products to engage Canadians—not only researchers, but students, journalists and business people—with reliable and timely information about their country. In elaborating on these themes, this paper will look at Statistics Canada's ongoing redesign of its public good products, its use of usability testing and its active engagement of the business, educational and media communities to encourage statistical literacy and research. The paper will also examine some of the challenges facing public good statistics, such as meeting the needs of diverse publics and archiving dynamic publications.