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'Robert Hamilton Coats' (1874-1960) was Canada's first Dominion Statistician.
He was born in Huron County, Ontario in 1874. In 1902, at the request of Prime Minister Mackenzie King, he became editor of the Labour Gazette; King himself had been the first editor of this publication which included statistical information related to labour. In 1915, he was appointed Dominion Statistician and Controller of the Census. Coats helped establish the Dominion Bureau of Statistics, now Statistics Canada.
He also served on statistical committees with the League of Nations. After he retired in 1942, Coats served as statistical advisor to the government of Ontario and the United Nations.
The R.H. Coats Building in Ottawa was named after him.