The end of the census or the end of the traditional census ?

The traditional census, as it has existed in Canada since 1871, can be described as an information technology that consists in subjecting every household in a given area, simultaneously and periodically, to a standardized questionnaire. In recent decades, several countries have moved away from this model in favour of new methods based on the exploitation of administrative records or on on-going sample surveys. Indeed, in some countries, households are no longer interviewed directly, or only a sub-set of them are. Data collection is more frequent (often on an annual basis), but covers only a sample of households. Following the Canadian government's decision to waive the mandatory character of the long form census, it seems useful and important to examine and discuss these alternatives to the traditional census, and to consider whether their establishment in Canada is conceivable.