Mars. The next frontier. (But not for Canada)

Harper yapping like a guttersnipe with the following is enough to gag most maggots:

Our country is united and the world is spreading the word, Canada is back

Back from what, you little weasel? Canada has always been here. Thank gawd you weren't around for most of it or we'd be trying to get out... of Iraq.

Given that insufferable claptrap this is confusing, to say the least. Is Harper trying to suggest that being involved in a global effort to explore space is "government too involved in the lives of Canadians"?

The federal government has turned down a request by Canada's space industry to support a contract that would have allowed the companies to build the European Space Agency's Mars surface rover, CBC News has learned.
The decision stunned the companies and has left the ESA scrambling to find a new partner, as no European firm is adequately prepared to match the technical abilities of Canadian firms to build its ExoMars rover.

Although, it becomes a little more obvious what's going on with this.

But just a few short weeks after the presentation, Industry Minister Maxime Bernier told the companies the government hadn't made up its mind about the future of Canada's space role and didn't want to go forward with the project.

[...]

In the July presentation, the companies pleaded with the government to appoint a new president of the CSA to give leadership to the agency that they say is needed to defend Canada's future in space.
The position has been left vacant for more than a year after Marc Garneau resigned to run for the Liberals in the last federal election.

Kiss that agency goodbye.


Someone should tell Harper that Men Are From Mars. Women Are From Venus.


Since there are no plans to explore Venus, funding a Mars project should be acceptable. (Poor Stevie just got his planets mixed up - that's all.)



(Apologies to John Gray)