BC Council for Families

by Marilee Peters
Director of Communications, BC Council for Families

The BC Council for Families celebrates the diversity of families, and believes wholeheartedly that "families are who you love." Our families all look different, and have always done so. At the BC Council for Families we work to strengthen and support family relationships -- whatever they look like.

Last week's HealthyFamilies article and accompanying webpoll, asking whether visitors to our site consider a married couple with children to be a family unit, got some of our readers talking, wondering why we were focusing our attention on family structure rather than family relationships. It's a good question.

The article and webpoll were in response to two recent national polls (one Canadian, one American) reported in the media, that attempted to measure current attitudes about families. Demographic, economic and social forces are changing Canadian families. Are public attitudes keeping pace with social change, and the growing variety of family arrangements? Like the pollsters, we think it's an important issue.

Over the next few weeks, the Council will be asking a series of poll questions on our website to measure what our site visitors think about this issue. Here's a look ahead at what we'll be asking in the next few weeks:

• December 6 -- "Do you believe a common-law couple with children constitutes a family unit, as you would see it?

• December 13 -- "Do you believe a single mother and children constitutes a family unit, as you would see it?

• December 20 -- "Do you believe a single father and children constitutes a family unit, as you would see it?
• 
January 4 -- "Do you believe grandparents raising grandchildren constitutes a family unit, as you would see it?

• January 10 -- "Do you believe a same-sex married couple and children constitutes a family unit, as you would see it?

These questions are simply an attempt to measure public attitudes to different family structures. We know that what matters most in families is the love and support that family members share. That's much more important, and much harder to measure.