Canada to close National Science Advisor Office

I am sad to hear the Canadian government will be cutting the office and position of the National Science Advisor. Dr. Arthur Carty will be retiring in March 2008. He was first appointed in April 2004.

In a country where there is a distinct lacuna in the area informed political decision-making about and around science, the loss of this office seems an unfortunate step backward.

It may be that the science advisor office/position overlapped too much with the recently announced (Oct 2007) Industry Canada Science, Technology and Innovation Council. While this might be the case, it is not clear if the watering down of science into this council is the best thing for science in Canada.

Comments

Anonymous said…
This is truly tragic. This anti-scientific trend within neo-conservatism in North America is baffling. Could it be that neo-cons feel threatened by knowledge? One has to ask why! Perhaps the looming 200th birthday (12 Feb 2009) of Charles Darwin has something to do with it?
09 February, 2008 06:53
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