On clear messages

A mere two months into power, the Cons are already telling a novelist that he'll have to toe the line on climate change as part of his other job with Environment Canada, and sending signals to other government employees to the same effect:

A scientist with Environment Canada was ordered not to launch his global warming-themed novel Thursday at the same time the Conservative government was quietly axing a number of Kyoto programs...

Publisher Elizabeth Margaris said that Mark Tushingham, whose day job is as an Environment Canada scientist, was ordered not to appear at the National Press Club to give a speech discussing his science fiction story about global warming in the not-too-distant future.

"He got a directive from the department, cautioning him not to come to this meeting today," said Margaris of DreamCatcher Publishers.

"So I guess we're being stifled. This is incredible, I've never heard of such a thing," she said...

"I obviously not only hope, but expect, that all elements of the bureaucracy will be working with us to achieve our objectives," Harper said at an appearance in Wainright, Alta., Thursday.

The prime minister's comments might be seen as a clear warning to public servants thinking of straying from government orthodoxy.

In the short term, the move is bound to backfire to at least some extent, since it'll likely grant tons more attention to the novel than would have been available without the warning. But for other civil servants, the message more than counters any claim to encouraging dissent that one might try to imply from, say, a small reward for whistleblowing under the Accountability Act. And if this is just the beginning for the Cons, I'm not sure I want to speculate as to what's next in Harper's effort to create his own made-in-Canada echo chamber.