TORONTO - With high divorce rates, blended families, common-law relationships, same-sex and single parents, it appears as though the nuclear family -- the kind whose lives were depicted in the 1950s television show "Leave it to Beaver'' -- is all but forgotten in Canada.
New census figures released Wednesday by Statistics Canada reveal the nuclear family is in dramatic decline. In 2006, just 17 per cent -- or 1.5 million -- of all census families consisted of a man and woman, married to each other, with two kids living at home. That's down from 18 per cent in 2001.
While modern families are represented by all kinds of unique arrangements, the nuclear family still thrives in some parts of Canada.
Commuter suburbs around Toronto and other big Canadian cities are attracting families interested in large, affordable homes within driving distance to work. In fact, aside from a Mennonite region of southern Manitoba, edge cities in Ontario such as Vaughan, Aurora and Markham have been distinguished in the census as the capitals of Canada's nuclear family.
Some sociologists say even though they still exist, today's traditional families are very different from the idealized image of Leave it to Beaver's fictional American family, The Cleavers.
"Families have changed in so many ways,'' says Clarence Lochhead, executive director of the Vanier Institute of the Family.
"Even when you look at families today, who may on the surface have the appearance of looking like those stereotypical, traditional families of the past, there's probably many, many ways in which those families are quite different.''
At first glance, Rina Trimmeliti, with her husband of 19 years and two sons, would appear to be the modern-day Mrs. Cleaver.
In her subdivision of Vaughan, north of Toronto, 51 per cent of households were comprised of couples with children at home -- the national average was 28.5.
The sprawling area just north of Toronto is so tight-knit neighbours water each other's lawns and take in the trash cans when families on the street are vacationing.
But take a closer look, and Trimmeliti's family couldn't be more different from that of June and Ward.
Mrs. Cleaver stayed home and raised the children, while her husband went to work.
Trimmeliti teaches part-time and put her children in day care so that she could contribute to the family bank account.
June had dinner on the table when Ward got home, and fetched his slippers and pipe as he settled in to read the newspaper in his study in the evening.
Trimmeliti's husband plays an active role in raising the children and taking care of the household.
In the television series, it was as though June and Ward had no extended family. Beaver and his brother Wally rarely saw their grandparents, aunts and uncles.
Trimmeliti's close Italian-immigrant family, on the other hand, is never far from sight.
Anne-Marie Ambert, a professor emeritus of sociologist at York University in Toronto, cites a number of reasons for the changing face of the nuclear family, but suggests none has been more influential than consumerism, which she believes sent mothers marching into the workforce and out of their traditional homemaking role.
"There is so much emphasis on consumerism; it's so expensive to live because people 'need' all kinds of goods that are very expensive,'' she said. "The size of home and the number of bathrooms have increased while the number of children have decreased.''
Ambert says it's unclear why some couples stay together and raise children while others do not. Trimmeliti wonders if her European heritage, with its emphasis on family values, can be credited.
Studies link religion to traditional family life, but have yet to tie ethnicity to long-term marriages.
As a child, Trimmeliti says her parents showed her a simple, clean-living life "where family was the centre of everything.''
"What was always important was the family, the extended family and the `paisani,' (or community). When people came (from Italy) they tended to stick around with people from the same area,'' she said.
Trimmeliti also views her community -- churches, recreation centres and of course the caring neighbours -- as the glue that keeps her family in tact.
"The parents you see at school are the ones you see on the hockey rink, the ones you see on the soccer field and the same faces you see at church,'' she said. "It's all sort of a support network that over time can be really beneficial.''
Zelda Abramson, a sociologist at Acadia University near Halifax, says television's Cleaver family never really existed, so it's no surprise ones made in their image are hard to find now.
"Historically, it just wasn't the case,'' she says. "And it is not the case now. There are all types of families.''
Abramson says society should accept a more elastic definition of the nuclear family.
"It can equal two parents. It can equal two same-sex parents. It can equal heterosexual parents. It can equal single-parent families. And what about couples who do not live together, but choose to raise kids?'' she says.
"Are they a family? . . . I would say they are.''
