Editorial - 14-15

Now that the crass politicking of a largely unnecessary federal election has run its course, the Liberal government can get down to delivering on the commitments it so earnestly announced in the last couple of months. Honouring one in particular is essential for Canada to maintain its standing as a competitive player in the New Economy. Prominently positioned at the beginning of its election platform document - - it reads:

The Liberal administration admits that Canada is a laggard in its support of S&T. Finance minister Paul Martin's September speech to the Toronto Board of Trade clearly spelled out Canada's poor performance in a number of key areas relating to the New Economy, and it set out specific targets for closing the gap with other industrialized nations. And there's a black and white pledge in the Liberal platform document to at least double federal expenditures on R&D by 2010, and increase them by $1 billion within four years.

The trick of course, is to spend the new funding wisely in areas that stimulate innovation and substantively boost productivity, while ensuring that the benefits are spread widely - both socially and geographically. The Liberals have arguably laid a solid framework in the past seven years upon which to build, and introduced new programs which hold great promise. Ensuring that these and future programs are performing as prom-ised is the challenge the Liberals must accept and accomplish.

Mark Henderson, Managing Editor