The problem was the alternative was a party full of American traitors and US citizens.

This should not be seen as a government service but rather a government asset. We funded research and development, we own it. The article goes into how it being owned by the government made more accessible.

I worked in that area of research and in Ottawa. The government funds a lot of development, we should own it. It does not mean that burecrats run everything, for these facilities experts run them. But rather these technologies should be owned by us so we can benefit.

The thing is...photonics is a key piece of technology in the grand scheme of things in AI infrastructure. If we are to have sovereign technology within Canada, we need to have inhouse capabilities. I mean, do we really want to pull another Nortel here?

Also, often times the public invests in these technologies since no one else would or it's not "profitable". And when it does become an emergent technology or critical piece of capability, the Canadian government always end up selling it off or privatizing it when it's a critical key component in keeping Canada competitive without being beholden to other sovereign states or companies. Remember COVID and how we don't have any labs to accelerate research because the previous Conservatives sold or closed all of them? Nortel? Bombardier? I mean, sure none of these are perfect, but better than nothing? Why is it are we always pennywise and pound foolish in the long term? How is it that these governmental policies are so short term sighted when a country should be looking at the long term impacts of not just 4 years, but rather 10+ years.