Many Canadian scientists are celebrating the result of yesterday’s federal election, which saw Stephen Harper’s Conservative government defeated after nearly 10 years in power. The center-left Liberal Party under Justin Trudeau won an unexpected majority government, taking 184 of the 338 seats in the House of Commons. The Conservatives will form the opposition with 99 […]
politics
In Canada, science campaigns for attention from voters
Opponents of Prime Minister Stephen Harper try to make his record on research an issue in election. Science is making a rare appearance in Canada’s election. As candidates make their last push before Election Day on 19 October, the nation’s leading opposition parties have taken aim at Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s science policies, which have […]
Fish fight
In Maine, indigenous tribes have severed ties with the state. There are no border guards when you cross the bridge from the tiny village of Princeton, Maine, to the Indian Township Reservation, but according to the Passamaquoddy Tribe who live there, you have entered sovereign territory. Last week, the Passamaquoddy and the nearby Penobscot Nation […]
Scientists are citizens, too
One of the common themes at last week’s Canadian Science Policy Conference in Halifax was the role of scientific evidence in policymaking, and specifically how scientists should go about providing it. I was disappointed to hear several of the politicians and policymakers – and no small number of scientists – repeat the same tired mantra that researchers […]
Don’t let my failure put you off, Ignatieff tells academics
Michael Ignatieff’s failed bid for Canada’s highest office must not put off other intellectuals from trying, he tells Research Canada editor Brian Owens. The first thing Michael Ignatieff wants people to know, when discussing his thwarted political career, is that he is not bitter about the way it turned out. “I’m glad I did it, […]
Canadian government accused of destroying environmental archives
Researchers fear that valuable documents will disappear as libraries close and merge. Scientists in Canada are up in arms over the recent closure of more than a dozen federal science libraries run by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and Environment Canada. The closures were mostly completed by last autumn, but hit the headlines last week […]
Magic trick transforms conservatives into liberals
‘Choice blindness’ can induce voters to reverse their party loyalty. When US presidential candidate Mitt Romney said last year that he was not even going to try to reach 47% of the US electorate, and that he would focus on the 5–10% thought to be floating voters, he was articulating a commonly held opinion: that […]
LibDem grassroots wait and see on science
Liberal Democrat activists at the party’s conference in Liverpool have adopted a ‘wait and see’ attitude to the coalition’s science policy. “I think the jury’s still out,” Ken Cosslett, chairman of the Association of Liberal Democrat Engineers and Scientists told Research Fortnight. “But we will definitely be discussing it at our AGM on Wednesday.” After […]
What to expect from the coalition
In May, UK voters decided not to give any one political party an absolute majority in the House of Commons. The result was the country’s first coalition government in 70 years, an unlikely pairing of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Read more in Materials Today.
The Big Cull: Where did all the scientists go?
The House of Commons is preparing for the biggest turnover of MPs since the second world war. Half of the 646 MPs will step down or lose their seats, including a majority of those with an interest, or expertise in, research. Scientists and campaign groups, not to mention science journalists, are worried. But how bad […]