Progressive parties’ showing bodes well for action on climate policies and science funding, researchers say. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won a second term on 21 October, but his Liberal party lost their majority in parliament. The Liberals and the Conservative party were locked in a dead heat leading up to election night, and the […]
politics
Liberals promise family doctors for all but is it realistic?
A major plank of the Liberal Party’s federal election platform is a promise to ensure that everyone in Canada has access to a family doctor or primary health care team. The party has pledged $6 billion over four years to support the commitment. Around five million Canadians lack access to primary care. But the Liberals’ […]
Canadian election leaves scientists hanging — no matter who wins
Leading political parties pay scant attention to research in run-up to general election. Canada’s two main political parties are running neck and neck in the lead-up to the country’s general election on 21 October. It’s unclear which party will come out on top, and that uncertainty extends to how science will fare in the next […]
Climate facts subject to rules on partisan advertising in Canada
Environmental charities and campaigners in Canada’s upcoming federal election this fall say they are facing new restrictions on how they talk about climate change after a warning from the country’s election watchdog that the topic will be subject to rules around third party “issue advertising.” Read more in Science.
Why are Canada’s scientists getting political?
Erratic funding for basic research, coupled with concerns that science has fallen down the priority list for politicians, has contributed to a shift in researchers’ attitudes to lobbying. Just a few days into her job as Canada’s new science minister, Kirsty Duncan found herself receiving a hero’s welcome when she took to the stage at […]
Concern over future of science in Ontario
Province’s new premier cancels media subscriptions and revokes carbon tax. Scientists in Ontario, Canada’s most populated province, are concerned about the future of government science in the province following the election of Doug Ford as premier. Ford, brother of the late Toronto mayor Rob Ford, has a populist streak and has shown little interest in […]
Political expatriate
US ‘national drama’ drives theoretical chemist to move to Canada. Theoretical chemist Alán Aspuru-Guzik was among many US citizens who talked of moving to Canada after the November 2016 election of Donald Trump as US president. Now, Aspuru-Guzik has made good on his declaration, and will begin a new post in July. He explains how […]
Trump’s border-wall pledge threatens delicate desert ecosystems
Ecologists fear plan to seal off the United States from Mexico would put wildlife at risk. With Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump talking about walling off the United States from Mexico, ecologists fear for the future of the delicate and surprisingly diverse ecosystems that span Mexico’s border with the southwestern United States. “The southwestern US […]
Israel’s botanical gardens face funding crisis
Israel’s 11 botanical gardens are scrambling to cope with deep cuts in funding from the government’s agricultural ministry. Government spending on the gardens, which host research and education programs and are often associated with universities, is down by more than 50% this year. That’s a reprieve from a 98% cut that the ministry announced last […]
A scientist elected to Canada’s Parliament shares his hopes as Trudeau prepares to take power
One scientist will be among the new faces in the 338-member House of Commons: Richard Cannings, a bird biologist, author, and former curator of the vertebrate museum at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Cannings, a member of Canada’s left-of-center New Democratic Party (NDP), will represent British Columbia’s (BC’s) South Okanagan—West Kootenay riding, or […]