In the Confessions of a Science Librarian blog, John Dupuy writes about the Harper Conservatives’ war against science. He’s logged and linked activities from 2006 to 2013 that show how the Conservatives have muzzled, cut budgets, and otherwise attacked Canada’s scientific research programs.
The article is good, the situation is awful. But one area that is a little misleading is the article’s title, it’s not a Canadian war on science but Harper’s Conservatives’ war on science. Most Canadians, if you follow the party voting lines, are opposed. The Conservatives, in spite of the majority government outcome, did not win anything close to the majority of the votes.
Harper is a follower of the Leo Strauss school of political philosophy. His followers were neo conservatives, Christian fundamentalists and militarists. Strauss taught at Chicago U like Flanagan. The belief is that ‘-perpetual deception of the citizen by those in power is critical because they need to be lead and they need strong rules to tell them what’s good.’ What a handy philosophy for an ego centric narcissist. Allows him to lie as much as he wants.