Editorial - 22-20

For Canadian S&T and R&D, 2008 has been a year of dramatic swings with far more gut-wrenching lows than euphoric highs to rattle even the most battle-hardened veteran. The year began with the high-profile departure of the head of the Canadian Space Agency and the closure of the Office of the National Science Advisor. It ends with a chorus of calls for massive stimulus spending to keep the high-tech sector solvent and the rest of the economy from further collapse.

In between there's been the crisis over the proposed sale of publicly funded space assets to the US, the further retreat of venture capital from high-tech, the virtual disappearance of federal (non tax-based) programs to support industrial R&D and the suspension of Phase II of the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto.

Not all the news was bad. A key meeting of proponents for Canada-California collaborative research moved the yardsticks on an important bilateral initiative while Ontario and Alberta continued to roll out their own innovation strategies with impressive financial resources.

Canada even received its first junior minister for S&T with the appointment of Gary Goodyear, a Cambridge ON MP and former chiropractor. All of this was encouraging but not inspiring, considering the failure of S&T to generate greater enthusiasm in the Harper government.

One only has to look to the US to be truly inspired by an evolving strategy to make S&T the prime generator of future prosperity and social well-being (see page 4). If Canada can't be a leader in embracing S&T as a critical driver in social and economic policy, at least it can be a follower.