Great piece in The Tyee by Donald Gutstein on “Spiritual Capital” and what’s in it for Stephen Harper. Yet another reason why we need “outed” atheist politicians.

What I’ve been saying all along:  Canada is failing science.

But why does no-one get the obvious, that it’s religious belief mixed in with running a government that creates such a situation.  No-one needs science if the world is coming to and end, no-one needs medicine or life extension technologies if we’re all going to heaven.  And why bother worrying about global warming for much the same reasons.

It’s time we punt Harper.  His knuckle dragging on the sciences is just plain stupid if not outright dangerous.

Many parliamentary democracies have coalition governments that work well at curbing the accesses of otherwise extreme governments. The federal Conservatives under Harper have long displayed signs of their far right wing agenda and have for all intents and purposes stated they would run the country as if they had a majority.  With only 38% of the public vote that’s just not on. It’s time to take them out before they do permanent damage to Canada and our way of life.

And it’s time to open up government again to public scrutiny and allow our government officials to speak, in particular our scientists. The Harper Conservatives have inflicted us with the most secretive government since WWII and I, for one, want to know what they have been hiding.

As for Harper, good riddance.   A very high percentage of Canadians don’t trust him and with good reason.