Canada's chief statistician resigned Wednesday over the Conservative government's decision to axe the long-census form, part of a spiralling political crisis that has pitted Stephen Harper's cabinet against the provinces, dozens of national organizations and now its own public service.

Throughout the day, rumours had been brewing that long-time bureaucrat Munir Sheikh was preparing to resign as he met with Privy Council officials in downtown Ottawa. Sheikh had abruptly cancelled a town-hall meeting on the census with anxious Statistics Canada employees earlier in the day.

Finally, in the early evening, Sheikh posted a news release on the Statistics Canada website. The 62-year-old career bureaucrat made it clear that he could not defend the government's directive to take the 30-year-old long-form census to a voluntary survey in 2011.

"I want to take this opportunity to comment on a technical statistical issue which has become the subject of media discussion. This relates to the question of whether a voluntary survey can become a substitute for a mandatory census," Sheikh wrote.

"It can not. Under the circumstances, I have tendered my resignation to the Prime Minister."

Sheikh said he would not discuss the advice that he and the agency had given Industry Minister Tony Clement on the census issue, but it was clear that there was a deep divide between the civil service and the Conservative cabinet over the issue.

Resignations over matters of principle are exceedingly rare in the federal bureaucracy, where senior executives are bred on the concept of fearless advice and loyal service to their political masters.

But Sheik's predecessor, veteran statistics czar Ivan Fellegi, had said he too would have resigned had the government tried to eliminate the census as it would be untenable to support the undermining of one of the agency's central activities.

Clement had said late last week that one of the options of Statistics Canada was to replace the long-form census with a voluntary survey, mailing it out to 60 per cent more households to try and mitigate the impact on the data. The long form features detailed questions on such topics as employment, religion and ethnicity.

"I chose one of those options, with their recommendation," Clement said last Friday.

But sources within the agency said that while Clement was given options, the voluntary survey route was not the recommended one.

The United States tried a similar experiment in 2003, but abandoned the idea when they saw how costly it would be to try and make up for lost data. Already, the federal government will spend $30 million to try and get Canadians to fill out a voluntary survey. Critics have said that some groups are unlikely to fill out the form, including low-income Canadians and aboriginals.

Clement said in a statement late Wednesday that he believed the government could in fact overcome the challenges of the voluntary survey.

"The government took this decision because we do not believe Canadians should be forced, under threat of fines, jail, or both, to divulge extensive private and personal information," Clement wrote.

An assistant chief statistician, Wayne Smith, was named as Sheikh's interim replacement.

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