Madam Speaker, when the results of election polls are published, the nature of the poll and its proponents have to be clearly stated. This gives Canadians a chance to assess the merits of the poll and the political bias of the pollsters. I believe there should be a similar rule for the publication of the results of research of all kinds, particularly health research.
If, for example, someone announces that research has shown that drinking beer is good for me, it is important that I know if the research was sponsored by a brewing company or someone else. If it was conducted by independent medical researchers, I can go on and drink beer with a clear conscience. If it was sponsored by a brewing company, it may still be pretty good news but I should take care to read the fine print about how the research was conducted.
Many medical and other scientific journals now require that the sponsors of research be clearly stated in any article that is published. Common sense suggests that this should be the case for all published results of research, especially health research. I urge that we move towards this as a standard practice, and I wish to thank Dick Jones for my fine Canada-Wales tie.