The answer is our Prime Minister Stephen Harper eliminated the role in late 2007. A few weeks ago President Obama recruited Harvard professor John Holdren as his primary science advisor and to run the White House Office of Science and Technology. Holdren directly advises Obama; who brings such issues directly to our PM and who does the PM consult when he has a gap in his strategic or tactical understanding of how public policy may be influenced by science and technology ? In theory the Advisor role was to be replaced by the Science, Technology and Innovation Council. In the last 23 months the STIC has published one document on their website and list an underwhelming five press releases. Holden has been on the job for less than a month and he already has the following 2 minute video on the OST site.
Is it possible Mr. Harper feels his knowledge of science and technology requires no assistance? Or perhaps he defers to Minister of State for Science and Technology Gary Goodyear who recently refused to say he believes in evolution. That is kind of like the Minister of Finance refusing to agree that he believes in capitalism. Goodyear said evolution was a religious issue – even the Vatican agrees that evolution is a scientific fact. AAAS have recently published an interesting interview with Holdren that is worth reading as well.
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