Editorial - 17-18

One of the strangest seasons in Ottawa’s political history is about to end as the Canada’s national leadership prepares to changes hands. One the one hand, it’s been an exciting time, with a flood of bold visions and fresh approaches to old problems jockeying for position. On the other hand a bizarre stasis has set in and forward progression has ground to a halt.

Talk to any organization seeking information, funding, advice or action from government. Until the changing of the guard is complete, they’ll tell you that any solicitation of government input seemingly drops into a black hole. But the more perceptive among them say it’s the calm before the storm that arrives with Paul Martin’s inaugural Speech From the Throne.

The Martin team will likely use the Throne Speech to move quickly and forcefully to place its stamp on government, complete with a host of new Cabinet faces and a pent up desire to govern. Martin has sent out extremely encouraging signals that S&T and innovation will play a major role in his administration. But the degree to which he will enact change is still the great unknown.

The funding flexibility enjoyed during the latter Chrétien years has been significantly constrained, and S&T proposals will face brutal competition from other equally deserving sources.

If any single S&T proposal has a chance of success, it will relate to commercialization, perhaps borrowing from US or German models referenced in Martin’s Montreal speech last September (R$, October 3/03). It promises to open a new chapter in Canadian innovation.