I have no idea if there's a new team of editorialists at Nature or if the old team has simply decided it's time they started to stir the pot. But they've been an ornery lot of late, and this swipe at the Canadian government's failure to respect science's contribution to society is a welcome wakeup call:
When the Canadian government announced earlier this year that it was closing the office of the national science adviser, few in the country's science community were surprised. Science has long faced an uphill battle for recognition in Canada, but the slope became steeper when the Conservative government was elected in 2006....
Since prime minister Stephen Harper came to power, his government has been sceptical of the science on climate change and has backed away from Canada's Kyoto commitment. In January, it muzzled Environment Canada's scientists, ordering them to route all media enquires through Ottawa to control the agency's media message. Last week, the prime minister and members of the cabinet failed to attend a ceremony to honour the Canadian scientists who contributed to the international climate-change report that won a share of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
That last snub was particularly surprising. Even George W. Bush could find the time and patience to pay his respects to Al Gore and the IPCC. And the editorial doesn't even mention the recent firing of the bureaucrat who ordered the closure a nuclear reactor on safety grounds -- although it produced half the world's medical tracer isotopes, it was an accident waiting to happen, and so its industry watchdog closed it down. The Harper government reversed the order, choosing to play politics with the strong and weak nuclear forces.
I'm not sure what it is that motivates the Harper government, other than sheer ignorance. Harper, in between a single term as opposition member of Parliament for the backwoods Reform Party, (which consisted mostly of disgruntled farmers who decided the Conservative Party wasn't conservative enough) and returning to Ottawa to lead a revived Conservative Party (which re-ingested the Reform upstarts), ran something called the National Citizen's Coalition. It's a right-wing organization "that stands for the defence and promotion of free enterprise, free speech and government that is accountable to its taxpayers." Not exactly the most friendly group when it comes to funding much of anything with public money, let alone climate science.
Like most governments in recent Canadian history, this one has survived for the last couple of years thanks purely to the absence of a competent and coherent opposition. There could be an election within a month or so. One can hope that the Liberal opposition is friendlier to science, and it's hard to imagine them being any more hostile. But it is likely that a Liberal government will require the support of the left-leaning New Democrats, who are significantly more in tune with the climate crisis that either of the other parties. In addition, there is a small but measureable chance that a Green Party, now led by the environmental crusader Elizabeth May, will actually elect someone to Parliament. So maybe something good will emerge from a spring election.
Or not. But one can hope. As an ex-pat Canadian living in the U.S., it's kind of depressing knowing that the Great White North is now less progressive on science and climate change, among other things, than the Great Satan in which I have settled.
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From what I've read here in Canada, I conclude that you over-dramatize the reversal of the nuclear reactor closure decision. Some details are still a bit murky, but it sounds as though there are political considerations on both sides of the argument, and that any dangers in restarting the reactor were considerably overstated.
And this is just ignorant on a number of counts. I suggest a bit of ... what's that you scientists respect so much? ... oh, yes - research on your part.
And by the way, you misrepresent Harper and his government very badly. He exerts considerable control from the Prime Minister's Office, and he's clearly the most intelligent and knowledgeable individual to hold that office in some time. Whatever the motivation for various policy choices, ignorance ain't it.
None of this is to suggest that I have much truck with the Harper government; I do not. But I do value accuracy.
"Whatever the motivation for various policy choices, ignorance ain't it."
And that makes it better?
I've been a scientist in exile from Canada for 10 years now. Little did I know that the crap funding situation and the insistence I just suck it up (and my subsequently leaving instead) would leave me in a situation where I feel almost stateless by now. I want to go home. It makes me severely angry every time I have to be confronted by the pathetic, continual, cross-party lack of vision when it comes to science, research, and the need to start tapping into an age of information and technology instead of just cutting down some more trees. All of which directly plays into my continuing exile. I love you Canada but you SUCK SUCK SUCK when it comes to science and to having any vision beyond next week.
It seems, from the comments, that Canada has a rural/ urban divide similar to the USA. Here the "conservative" label has been hijacked by radical reactionaries with a distinct preference for medieval social arrangements. I had thought "Canucks" rather cheerful rationalists from the samples met in industry. What's the story?