If you are in Canada you should know that second marriages can adversely impact the "next of kin" status of children of the first marriages. We both have children from our first marriages and have a duty to protect them. And also, I do have full step-mom status under the law here. I have legal guardianship and she is covered under my benefits. Canada doesn't discriminate against different types of families. Believe me, we are both very committed.

This must be a problem for anyone who enters a new relationship. I have a widowed sister-in-law who met a wonderful man about ten years after losing her H, but she won't marry him because of the wish to protect the assets which she feels were provided by her late husband to go to her in her lifetime and their daughter after her death - and not to be enjoyed by a new husband and possibly left to his adult children should my SIL die first.

If Canada treats cohabitation the same as legal marriage, then how can being legally married make your position in regard to the first set of children - worse? Isn't it already worse?

If cohabitation is the same as legal marriage, then why hasn't your "next of kin" status vis-a-vis your son already changed, and the same for your partner and his daughter? Aren't you already each other's next of kin, over and above the children?

It could very well be linked to UK law - our laws our generally based off UK law (not US law like many laymen believe), with the exception of Quebec provincial law.

Definition of family wide open, census may show
The Canadian Press Posted: Sep 18, 2012 9:14 AM ET Last Updated: Sep 18, 2012 9:25 AM ET Read 56 comments56
The cover of the 2011 census package is seen in Ottawa on May 5, 2011. On Wednesday, Statistics Canada's third tranche of data from the 2011 census - this one focused on families and their living arrangements - will make it clear that in this country, family can mean almost anything at all. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

To hear the politicians tell it, there's a typical Canadian family out there that is the justification for many an election promise, tax break or new policy.

It's a central theme of every party platform and speech. Last spring, Stephen Harper was "here for hard-working families," the late Jack Layton offered "to give families a break" and Liberal hopeful Michael Ignatieff touted "your family, your future, your Canada."

On Wednesday, Statistics Canada's third tranche of data from the 2011 census � this one focused on families and their living arrangements � will make it clear that in this country, "family" can mean almost anything at all.

For the data collectors, there is no such thing as a generic Canadian family. Rather, there are at least eight different 'family' categories, some so complex that officials had to develop a flow chart just to start explaining what they're talking about.

At its most basic level, Statistics Canada defines a family as a couple � with or without children, married or common-law � or a lone parent with at least one child in the same house.

In other words, it takes at least two people to make a family. Beyond that, almost anything goes.

There are skip-generation families, intact families, simple step families, complex step families, opposite-sex families and same-sex families.

Tracking foster children
The census will go further than ever before in counting and describing stepfamilies and how their households are set up.

And for the first time, the census will be tracking the number of foster children � to the delight of child welfare researchers.

"The fact that it's national data � data being collected through a national statistical organization � helps to bring focus on the question of foster care and foster children, at a national level," said Nico Trocme, director for McGill University's Centre for Research on Children and Families.

"Foster children are one of the most vulnerable groups in Canada. We need to be shining a light on them more often, rather than less. So I'm thrilled."

For now, there remains no sure-fire way of knowing how many foster children there are in Canada, Trocme said � let alone where they are from, what their challenges are, and what kinds of supports they need.

Trocme, who has spent a career cobbling together estimates based on various strains of provincial data, isn't sure the census will tell him exactly what he needs to know to take his research further. But he said the new data will establish a baseline that will propel solid work in the coming years.

Blended families
Wednesday's data will also reveal just how commonplace divorce and so-called blended families have become.

On the marriage front, it will show how many same-sex couples have formalized their relationships since gay marriage became legal in Canada.

As for kids, are more couples having them? Were those couples actually married? The 2006 census showed that for the first time, there were more childless couples than couples with children in Canada. Was it just a blip, or an enduring trend?

And do the kids ever leave home? Have multi-generational households become more common?

Those are questions that fascinate Nora Spinks, who heads the Vanier Institute of the Family in Ottawa.

Spinks has been handling research on all those topics, and the census will give her the data she needs to validate conclusions and update her numbers � leading to more relevant research in the months to come.

Spinks said she's particularly keen to see who is living with whom inside Canadian households. She suspects that with an aging population, she will see evidence of children living with grandparents and even great-grandparents as families look for efficient caregiving arrangements that work for multiple generations.

Like many social scientists, Spinks has been watching the trend of young adults staying at home with parents, or moving back in after a time away. The census data will clarify how entrenched that pattern is, she said.

"Are young people truly returning home in large numbers, and to what extent? Is it a passing phenomenon?" she pondered. "When they return home, are they starting families?"

The census should also detail how seniors are living: in group homes, with relatives, or alone.

But much of the focus on the census analysis will be on blended families. For the first time, Statistics Canada has counted and quantified stepfamilies, delving into the dynamics of re-marriage.

The data will be of more than just passing interest, said Spinks. Armed with solid data about how old most children are when their families split up or reformulate, social scientists will be better able to design supports and counselling programs.

"There may be different kinds of supports needed if it's mainly pre-schoolers or adolescents," Spinks said.

"It will gives us some insights into the kinds of stresses families face today."