Do Prime Minister Harper's science priorities reflect the best interests of Canada? It's certainly a question worth asking, but you won't find the answer by interviewing the folks guaranteed to have the most biased perspective: laid-off scientists and the left-wing union that represents them. Though that's the CBC's preferred approach. Considering we're supposed to be talking about a war on facts, it is a tad ironic, though.

I will simply say that the reason the Conservatives should want government scientists to speak freely to journalists is because it is in their -- the present government's -- profound self interest. They want to be able to say to the Canadian people when something with deep scientific rooting screws up in a major way: Don't just blame us.