Believe it or not, Stats Canada phoned me about my census form yesterday.  They had left a message the day before so I called them back and had one of the strangest conversations I've ever had.  It went something like this:

-  First I tell the guy who I am and he looks up my form.  This is all conducted in English.
- He gets the form or something in front of him on his computer.  Then he asks me in English whether I was to talk about it in English or French.  I say English and jokingly admit that I'm embarassed by how bad my French is.  He tells me not to wsorry about it, he doesn't speak it either. (I wonder what would have happened if I had said "French")
- His next move is to apologize for the call but that the computer had had a hard time reading one of the answers on the form I had submitted.  I tell him that's okay, my handwriting is atrocious.
- He says wait until you hear the question the computer says it can't understand.  He's a real nice guy and by now he's laughing. I tell him to go ahead.
- He tells me the computer is unsure about my answer regarding "How many leelee in the home"
- I ask him what the hell "leelee" is.  He's busting a gut by this time and says "I have no idea." and then says, as far as he knows there's no such question on the census form which explains why the computer can't understand my answer.  He says they're getting all sorts of strange responses from the computer and, by law, they have to try to verify the answer no matter how ridiculous it is.
- We chat for a second or two longer and then he hangs up saying "can you believe I get paid for this?"

Too funny jim. You should have said "Only one. Lee lee come from China last year. She wash clothes and scrub my back".   (sorry, sorry, but I couldn't help it)

We did ours online. Hope the computer can read it's own writing.

Oh gawd! Now I have to clean my monitor!!!!

Jim,


Are you sure that wasn't the US calling.  It sounds like something that would happen here.  That is hilarious. 

It was Canada, alright.  We have our government too.

The reason the conversation was funny was because of the attitude of the guy I talked to.  With my temper and the typical, officious government employee it could have gone a whole different direction.  But there's a serious side as well.  Census data is important for a number of reasons and, when you get calls and computer screw-ups like this, you have to wonder how accurate it is. 


  

So, Jim, how many leelees are now really in your home?

3