Beyond The Commons

 Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

Do the evolution (V)

by Aaron Wherry on Tuesday, March 17, 2009 11:21pm - 21 Comments

Gary Goodyear gets some support from, well, pretty much the last person you’d expect to be defending him at this moment.

On Tuesday, Liberal science critic Marc Garneau said that believing in evolution is not a job requirement for the science minister.

“It is a personal matter. It is a matter of faith.… I don’t think it prevents someone from being a good minister,” said the former astronaut, who has been a vocal critic of the government for its cuts to the three granting councils that fund university-based research in Canada.

It is perhaps time to wonder whether this isn’t all just an elaborate production to punk Dan Gardner.

Tags: , , ,
Bookmark and Share
  • madeyoulook

    No, this is Garneau with some political smarts. You don’t HAVE to go after Goodyear over his religion. He’s done HIMSELF him over just plain ol’ incompetence.

    You overstate “support” in monsieur Garneau’s remarks, I find.

    • Geiseric the Lame

      “So I’m not fussy on this business that we already know everything” – Gary Goodyear

      Strikes me his science should be more of a concern than his religion.

  • D

    Re:
    “On Tuesday, Liberal science critic Marc Garneau said that believing in evolution is not a job requirement for the science minister.”

    Garneau may be right. I can’t say I agree with him entirely.

    However, having a basic understanding of evolution definitely should be a job requirement for science minister. Goodyear has clearly failed this test. He should be toast as a minister but I’m not holding my breathe.

  • Mike T.

    But what would an astronaut know about being a minister?

    • Geiseric the Lame

      I dunno

      These days someone who’s trained to go where they’re told and speak when they’re spoken to would probably fit right in.

  • LeslieE

    “It is a personal matter. It is a matter of faith.…”
    What is the “it”, Mr. Garneau is referring to?
    Evolution is not a matter of faith.

  • Reality Check

    Religious bigots everywhere. What else can one expect from the left and the Liberal Party of Canada, led by the dinosaur waving Chinese insulting fanatic himself.

    My question – when do we find out about the email list that has Wells, O’Malley, Gardner, Kinsella, etc all sharing ideas and aspirations off the record like the American Left? Vile scum, the lot of you.

  • http://macleans.ca kc

    “…It’s a matter of faith.… I don’t think it prevents someone from being a good minister,…”

    Maybe not Mr G, if that person is also smart, objective and generally non-idealogical in out-look – oh, and competent. How’d ya do there Gary?

  • Andrew (not Potter or Coyne)

    Since when it evolution a religious belief? Can our science minister also disbelieve gravity, or electromagnetism?

  • Critical Reasoning

    My respect for Marc Garneau just increased considerably. Marc Garneau is one of those examples of the opposition critic being much more qualified than the minister he shadows.

  • avr

    an elaborate production to punk Dan Gardner

    It’d be nice. He could stand to get taken down a peg, the smug gimp.

  • Lord Kitchener’s Own

    Nice, classy comments by Mr. Garneau. No surprise there.

    Unfortunately, I’ve now moved on from caring about whether or not Minister Goodyear “believes” in the theory of evolution.

    I’m now much more concerned about that fact that he apparently doesn’t even have the beginnings of a basic understanding of what the theory of evolution is!

    My analogy is that it’s as though we’ve gone from a Minister saying he doesn’t believe in gravity to a Minister saying “Of course gravity exists! It’s the power of the giant invisible magnets buried deep in the Earth which keeps us all from flying off!”

    I was actually much less concerned when I just thought he didn’t believe in evolution.

  • http://www.jackmitchell.ca Jack Mitchell

    Relax, LKO, he probably doesn’t understand creationism either.

  • archangel

    Immodium = anti-gravity. Shameless plug.

  • PolJunkie

    “I’m now much more concerned about that fact that he apparently doesn’t even have the beginnings of a basic understanding of what the theory of evolution is!”

    I agree but I do have a problem with the way the Globe and Mail set him up because, make no mistake about it, that was a set up. I still can’t find any record of what the original question was.

    Why would the reporter just ask Goodyear, out of the blue, whether he believed in evolution? In fact, this is the question that we all ASSUME she asked but I can’t find any confirmation of this in any Globe story.

    I don’t care how the Globe spins this. The only reason why one would ask a Tory MP whether he believes in evolution is to bring out his religious views. What if the MP had answered the question and said no? This line of questionninng inevitably leads to a religious discussion.

    Goodyear clumsily tried to avoid it but you will NOT make me believe that the reporter wasn’t trying to lead him to such a discussion.

    I’m no Tory supporter. In fact, I can’t wait until Canadians finally come to their senses and throw these hillbillies out of office, Goodyear included. That being said, there is a higher principle to be upheld here and that is that one’s religious does not and should not be a factor in matters of policy. One only needs to look to history to see how such debates usually end.

  • Lord Kitchener’s Own

    Oh, relaxation’s no longer a problem for me!

    Reading these posts about the Minister all day has forced my body to spontaneously evolve a highly developed sense of detached bemusement.

  • Lord Kitchener’s Own

    avr’s really cut to the heart of the matter here.

    The problem’s not, as many seem to think, that our nation’s Minister for Science and Technology apparently doesn’t even have a basic high school level grasp of one of the most important scientific theories in the history of science.

    The problem, is that that elitist punk Dan Gardner has the audacity to suggest that we should care.

  • avr

    Indeed.

    I expect those wailing and gnashing their teeth now will be similarly upset by the lack of relevant qualifications that cabinet members in the next Liberal government will surely have, right? Like, say, if a minister for democratic renewal was bribed to cross the floor, something like that?

    This brouhaha couldn’t be all in aid of finding a cover for generic Tory-loathing and Christian-bashing, right?

    Right?

  • TobyornotToby

    Shouldn’t that be a shameful UNplug?

  • TJ Cook

    That question was totally fair. If Goodyear’s religion demands that he reject a cornerstone of modern science, the Canadians who pay his salary have a right to know.

  • Lord Kitchener’s Own

    I’d say this particular example is a bit more akin to a Minister for Democratic Renewal not being able to give an accurate grade eleven level explanation of what “voting” is.

Previous

Next

From Macleans