Except apparently Iggie missed this part:
The only agency that regularly finances large-scale science in Canada was shut out of Tuesday's federal budget, putting at risk thousands of jobs and some of the most promising medical research, and forcing the country to pull out of key international projects.For the first time in nine years, Genome Canada, a non-profit non-governmental funding organization, was not mentioned in the federal budget and saw its annual cash injection from Ottawa - $140-million last year - disappear.
Putting thousands of jobs at risk doesn't sound like good stimulus. And pulling the rug out from under "some of the most promising medical research" doesn't sound like policy calculated to make Canada stronger coming out of the recession than it was going in.
H/t to Hell, Upside Down.
Those heinous stupid fucking morons.
And I'm talking about both the Cons and the Libs. Honest to Odin, I often think the NDP are decidedly mediocre, but decidedly mediocre would be *light years* ahead of anything the Libs or Cons have to offer!
Yeah, like hawks.
Like a hooded falcon on the king's arm.
The only research directly supported by Harper's new budget happens to be connected to Mike Lazaridis (who was a member of Harper's Economic Advisory Council).
The budget provides $50 million to build a new research facility for the Institute for Quantum Computing, a research centre based at the University of Waterloo. Mike Lazaridis, the president and co-CEO of Research in Motion, helped found the institute, sits on its board of directors and has donated his own money to it.
David Suzuki has an analysis of the shortfall in "green" investments in the budget, here:
http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=47925653643&h=8Admi&u=jaLfJ
"“Although this budget has some pockets of green spending, overall it represents a missed opportunity for the government to position Canada as a leader in the green economy of the future. Contrast this with what our major trading partner, the U.S., is doing under President Barack Obama. President Obama just announced $55 billion in immediate green stimulus spending. Meanwhile, less than five per cent of Canada’s budget is allocated to immediate green stimulus spending.”
Obama: 55 BILLION $ in green stimulus
Flaherty 1.1 billion $ in green stimulus
Jeff, how does that look in percentages of the budget or GDP? I ask because I know their budget, ect, is much larger than ours and I have no idea what, proportionately speaking, both figures look like.
As the same time the more I read about this budget the less I like it.
How about per capita?
Estimating our population at 33 million, our green stimulus is $33.33 per person. Estimating the U.S. population at 303 million, their green stimulus is $181.51 per person. Their green stimulus is more than five times ours on a per capita basis.
I used the population estimates from the CIA's World Fact Book.
Thanks! That definitely puts the numbers into a perspective that is human and therefore meaningful. Talking in millions and billions can look good but mean, well, mediocre or not good.