Dear Kennedy Stewart (Canadian Member of Parliament), About your petition for a national science strategy …

Dear Kennedy, I very much appreciate all your efforts to bring the science conversation into the national  discourse. Also the idea of a national science strategy is appealing to me but I find your petition for such a little puzzling.

Here’s what I mean (points 2 and 4),

THEREFORE we call on the Government of Canada to
implement a National Science Strategy that:

1) Creates an independent Parliamentary Science Officer;
2) Creates a new Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister [in Science Minister Kirsty Duncan’s ministerial mandate letter from the Prime Minister {see my Nov.17, 2015 posting}, this position is given top priority but there has been no announcement to date; she has discussed how her process for developing this position and an announcement is expected in the near future {I hope}];
3) Brings in comprehensive ethics legislation to end the muzzling of scientists;
4) Restores the mandatory long-form census [this was restored according to a Nov. 5, 2015 article by Bruce Campion-Smith for the Toronto Star];
5) Re-establishes scientific capacity in key federal departments;
6) Strengthens the independence of the federal granting councils;
7) Maintains support for Canada’s universities and colleges;
8) Provides new funding for post-secondary researchers over five years;
9) Ensures a balanced approach to federal science & technology policy;
10) Makes government data open and publicly-available by default.

Do you know something I don’t? Please let me know. Otherwise, the petition seems odd given that I received your request via email on Aug. 11, 2016,

My team is collecting signatures right now for 4 major petition campaigns.

Whether it’s tackling BC’s affordable housing crisis, stopping the new Kinder Morgan pipeline, or bringing gender parity to Canadian democracy, we’re working towards progressive change that makes a real difference in people’s lives.

You can download copies of each petition at the links below:

Signed petitions can be mailed postage-free to my Parliament Hill office:

I wish you good luck with your efforts but before signing this petition I would like to know more and/or see an updated version.

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