OTTAWA — A Toronto Liberal MP wants to fast-track through Parliament her private member's bill to bring back the mandatory long-form census before the voluntary survey is mailed to Canadian households next spring.

Carolyn Bennett introduced the bill in the House Thursday, a day after the opposition parties passed a motion to reinstate the mandatory long-form census.

The Harper government has indicated it will ignore the motion because it is not binding.

Bennett said she hopes to move ahead of other Liberal bills to ensure her bill gets debated as soon as possible. A spokesman in Bennett's office said the goal is to reach second reading in two weeks to a month, the stage before a bill goes to parliamentary committee.

"It is not good enough for this dictator of a prime minister to pick and choose which laws he wants to abide by or not," Bennett said at a news conference announcing her bill.

"He doesn't have a majority, the majority of the House of Commons yesterday said do the right thing and listen to Canadians. And now we will enshrine it in law, and if he doesn't want to obey the law of the land, then Canadians need to really think who they have as a prime minister."

The bill proposes to amend the Statistics Act to ensure the long-form census is reinstated and cannot be removed by future governments. It would also remove the threat of jail time for people who do not fill it out, which the Conservative government has also said it will do with its own impending bill.

The Tories last June scrapped the mandatory long-form census and replaced it with the new national household survey, a voluntary form.

Industry Minister Tony Clement answered to Liberal calls in the House to reinstate the long-form census but did not indicate the government would change its position.

"Our agenda is quite clear and fair. We're trying to treat Canadians fairly and reasonably by having a balance between the need for data in our society, and the need for some Canadians to conscientiously object to certain intrusive and personal questions that are found on the long-form," said Clement.

"We are proud of that decision, we voted that way in the House, and that's how we conduct our government — in the interest of the people Canada," he said.

Critics of the move to replace the long-form census — which include dozens of groups such as provincial and municipal governments, statisticians, and health and social service organizations — say the replacement will not provide accurate data because it won't capture a representative sample of Canadians.

This could also affect marginalized groups, who are less apt to fill out a voluntary form, said Bennett.

With the support of the NDP and the Bloc, Bennett said she is confident the bill will pass in the House, but she did cast doubt on how quickly it could progress in the Senate.