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The Conservatives had better not be relying on the scientist vote to take them to victory in 2015.

By training and disposition, people who wear lab coats to work are detached and introverted. But the Conservatives have managed to get them riled up, to the point that they will half-heartedly wave signs and issue scathing denunciations.

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This week, Steve Campana, on his way out the door after 32 years at Fisheries, gave a blistering interview to CBC, warning that government science is in a “death spiral,” because good scientists are leaving in disgust.

Campana warns we are losing our science capacity, which will mean that if great white sharks invade our waters, “we won’t have the qualified people in place” to answer questions.

There has always been tension between politicians and scientists.

The worst environmental catastrophe in modern Canadian history — the destruction of the northern cod stocks — happened because politicians ignored the scientists who told them to pull the nets out of the water.