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Thursday, December 11, 2014

Ideology can't take the place of facts.

The Conservatives claim they are the best party to lead Canada. Since they took over manufacturing have disappeared overseas en masse. With that, the science and technology jobs that power that growth in manufacturing have also disappeared without a manufacturing base.

If you believe in ideological-based decisions you ignore facts.  In this case, the lower number of patents is the evidence that things are not better under the conservatives. I would rather have an evidence-based decisions for my government.

Canada in Nobel drought. 20 years since Canadian awarded Science's top prize.

What I don't understand is that conservatives claim they are pro business. But no business manager makes ideology decisions. He or she looks at the numbers.  In this case, the numbers suggest the opposite. Here is what the the report given to the Conservative says;

 Canada’s S&T Strength, Overall
Participants in the online survey were asked to rate Canada’s overall strength in S&T, and its trend. The results, reflecting 1,490 responses to the question, are depicted in Figure 8.1, disaggregated by age and affiliation.
  • The integrated view of Canada’s strength overall in science and technology is somewhat more pessimistic than survey respondents’ opinion of S&T strengths in specific areas of research, technology application and infrastructure. Fewer than half of respondents ranked Canada strong overall in S&T (ratings 5, 6 and 7) and roughly a quarter believe we are weak (ratings 1, 2 and 3) relative to the average of other economically advanced countries.
  • The perception of overall trend is rather pessimistic — almost 40% believe Canada is losing ground, while only 28% see us gaining. The net trend, again, is considerably more pessimistic than is the case for the (average) outlook in the specific areas of research and technology application (see bottom of Figure 8.1).
  • The overall perception is reasonably consistent across affiliations and ages. Those under 35 perceive greater strength but are not much more optimistic than the average as to trend — i.e., 38% down vs. 33% up.
  • The views of those with government and business affiliation are remarkably similar and are more pessimistic regarding both strength and trend than those with academic affiliation. 

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