Mr. Speaker, that in debating is called a smackdown.
That is an interesting piece of trivia. We have had two now. We had one earlier in my friend's speech, and now we know where the laptop came from. I did not know that.
I have often said that if we left it solely to government to try to invent something like the BlackBerry, just in and of itself, it would be 40 pounds and would work at a distance of 200 feet. It would not be all that great, because the government is not well designed to do that kind of innovation in and of itself. However, it is meant to stir and stimulate that innovation and bring together the best minds. That is a good role for government.
The BlackBerry, perhaps, is no better example. The government invested heavily. The oil sands would be another example. The government invested heavily across the country in developing the technology and in stimulating the type of investment that allowed it to start being profitable and commercially viable.
While innovation in and of itself can come from government, there have been some concerns, and the minister is well aware of them, about too much of a move toward only commercialized science. That is science that, from the moment it starts, is purely designed for that commercial moment. While it sounds pretty good in a press conference, the minister will also know the way science works. Innovators do not know what they are going to get when they start. The best minds are open to those possibilities. We need to attract those best minds. We need to allow them the space to make those mistakes, because that is what science is. It is a series of repeated mistakes until they find the way through and find the inventions and innovations that lead to a better quality of life for everybody.
I thank the member for the tidbit. I did not know that about the laptop.