A step backward in Canada

[Lionel Mandrake]

In his column "WhatsNew", physicist Robert Park has criticized the Oct. 2008 election results in Canada as follows:

Stephen Harper, newly elected Conservative-Party Prime Minister, named
Gary Goodyear, an obscure Member of Parliament, to be Minister of Science
and Technology. Already this year Goodyear oversaw a series of massive
science funding cuts, including zeroing out the Genome program. A
chiropractor and acupuncturist with no science background, he is known for
opposing same-sex marriage and favoring full legal rights for fertilized
eggs. Asked in an interview if he believed in evolution, he objected to
being questioned about religion. Later that day he said he believed in
evolution. He should have stopped there, but expanded with an example
from chiropractic about women’s shoes and the spine. He clearly confused
genetic inheritance with adaptation of an individual, or perhaps he
believes in Lamarckian evolution.

For this and other quips by Bob Park, see

http://www.bobpark.org

[Posteritatis]

1. It wouldn't surprise me if he believed in Lamarckian evolution, really (nt)

[Lionel Mandrake]

2. Is this guy popular in Nova Scotia?

Bush would have gotten along very well with him.

[Posteritatis]

3. The cabinet has very few fans here these days

The federal conservatives are pretty openly anti-Maritimes as often as not. Halifax in particular's probably the main research city for the region, so the science and education games Ottawa's been playing have pretty much been universally loathed.

It's kind of odd, since Nova Scotia can get really goddamned conservative at times, but we keep electing Liberals and NDPers all over the place...

[47of74]

4. I'm surprised George Bush didn't want to stay in Canada

Given that he has a lapdog up there.

[Posteritatis]

5. A lapdog with a thirty percent approval rating and few effective powers (nt)

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

7. Harper has no real power to speak of, Prime Minister or not.

Both the Liberal and Conservative parties in Canada have imploded and neither has the leadership, fundraising resources or activist base to mount an effective campaign with a prayer of forming a majority government.

Both the Liberals Conservatives have bleed supporters in Quebec to the Bloc and the Liberals have had to deal with a resurgent NDP, which was once a European style Christian Democratic movement but is now basically the white urban douchebag party and as such greatly limits their former blue collar and rural appeal and could never be an effective third party.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

6. Canada has been marching backwards for the last 25 years

The Canada we American liberals fantasize has not existed since Pierre Trudeau retired.

[Lionel Mandrake]

8. Well darn! I'll have to fantasize about something else.

How about money and sex. Those make much better fantasies. ;-)

[DCKit]

9. Permissive weed laws, national healthcare and strong currency based on low national debt...

My domestic (U.S.) fantasies are never as fulfilling.