Evolution is a fact, science is important, and what is our government doing to research?

I was quite pleased to see the Ottawa Citizen run a huge article today on the fact of Evolution and a related article.  It's pleasing because even in Canada, the forces of stupidity would have us believe that some magical sky fairy bleemed everything into existence and gave humans domain over everything.  Evolution is the antithesis of that world view.

Now we're fortunate that Canadians tend to have saner heads than so many in the USA... but we're not without our share of yobbos.  For example, they reared their little serpentine heads and influenced the city of Ottawa to reject the atheist ads on OCTranspo buses despite a proliferation of religious ads in the past.

We tend to have very little issue with this in the classrooms, however.  Science classes stick to science and I think that means our children are just that much better educated.  In Europe, they're a lot more direct.  Here's a German educational video (with subtitles) that would never make it to air in Canada because someone religious would be offended.

"Smartypants" is a translation that captures the meaning of her name obliquely.  The direct literal translation is "Susie Nine Times Clever" - hence the 9 on her shirt - she's a superheroine :)

So what?

Unfortunately, science is under attack in Canada by more conservative elements.  They're quieter about it, but they're just as insidious.  In the US, the recent economic stimulus package contained about $25 billion for scientific research.  In Canada, our stimulus measures have involved cutting money from the National Research Council and includes no funding for scientific research at all.  Canada has traditionally been a world leader in science and technology, but if we don't fund it, we'll be a scientific backwater in short order.

Our Conservative government, led by a very religious man and supported by a large number of religious fundamentalists in the party, doesn't seem to think science is very important.  I'd love to know their reasoning for this, and I hope it's nothing like "God will guide us in these times."