Statistics Canada ended up using the "other" box, encouraging people to include "same-sex married couple" as a write-in response.
Egale Canada, an advocate group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights, urged people to check husband or wife rather than the "other" box. Many members simply chose not to complete the census in protest.
Milan told The Canadian Press that it's "difficult to say" what effect Egale's dissent had on the numbers.
"Future census releases will allow us to compare the count and see what's happening," she said.
Statistics Canada and Egale are discussing how to change the counting process next time.
Michael Leshner, one of Canada's first legally "married" gay men, said that the fact the question was being asked at all shows that "people are getting on with their lives, which was fundamentally what the whole debate was about.
"It's really a debate that hopefully has run its course... We're just part of the boring middle class now," he said, according to the local newspaper.
Same-sex couples represented 0.6 per cent of all couples in Canada in 2006, which is comparable to numbers reported in the United States, New Zealand and Australia.
Today, gay tolerance is on the rise around the world, particularly among young people. Nearly half (46 per cent) of Americans in the United States say same-sex couples should be recognised by the law as valid with the same rights as traditional marriages, according to a recent Gallup Poll.
In addition, 50 per cent of Mexicans support proposals to allow gay "marriage", according to a 2005 poll by the Mitofsky market-research firm. Same-sex civil unions were legalised in Mexico City in 2006 and with the Roman Catholic Church in Mexico becoming less vocal in their opposition, activists are hoping to legalise same-sex "marriage".
