Mr. Harper does not go to Mars

Technology, as Ali G once said, is "well important." So much so, that, as part of their platform the Conservatives said the following:

"Increased promotion of basic and applied research, especially in science and technology, is an essential component of Canada’s future economic well-being. It is unacceptable that Canada’s expenditure on research and development, at 1.9 percent of GDP, is below all other G-8 countries and well below the OECD average of 2.3 percent."

Now today I find out that Harper's government won't support a Canadian bid to build a robot for a European Mars mission. At first I cynically thought that perhaps Harper was waiting for some kind of American permission to work on a European space mission. But then I read on and find that we asked for and received a US approval!

"The project had the approval of the United States, which also wanted Canada to continue its robotics role and had signed off on Canadian firms to design at least the robotics component on equipment and vehicles used on its planned mission to the moon in 2020."

This is a whole other topic now that we apparently ask Washington what we are allowed to do with our technology sector. (Yeah, yeah, I'm sure it's national security or something.) But this paragraph strips Harper of one of the things that might explain Diefenbaker's Arrow cancellation: wanting to be a good US neighbour.

As Jim said, I'm sure that we can expect some kind of Conservative statement about commitments to R&D innovation anon.

Image: The legendary Arrow unveiled
Tags: Stephen Harper, Mars, space, technology, Avro Arrow.