The Liberal Party is giving research and innovation a high profile with the naming of its opposition critics to the new government. The creation of two new positions for science and research, and competitiveness and the new economy signals the Liberals' intent to leverage its experience with both files to hammer the new ruling party in areas where the Tories have no track record and little visibility.

Given Industry Canada's responsibility for a large portion of both files, the opposition Liberals are in essence placing three critics on the department.

The Industry opposition critic is Jean Lapierre, who was Transport minister in the Paul Martin government. He will be assisted by associate critics Paul Zed and Gurbax Malhi.

Joe Fontana has been named opposition critic for science and research. During the last Chr‚tien government, Fontana held the position of parliamentary secretary for science & small business from December/03 until the June/04 election. During the Martin government, the position remained vacant.

Maurizio Bevilacqua has been named opposition critic for competitiveness and the new economy. The Toronto MP briefly held the position of secretary of state for science, research and development for four months in 2002 before moving to Finance and relinquishing the post to Dr Rey Pagtakhan.

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