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What is Prorogation and why does Harper want it?
by Tina Kells | December 4, 2008 at 08:57 am
608 views | 22 Recommendations | 10 comments
Stephen Harper is facing a vote of non-confidence in Parliament and is trying to ward off an opposition coalition. In a last bid to stop this from happening he has asked Governor General Michaelle Jean for a prorogation.
This begs the question... what exactly is prorogation?
Wikipedia explains:
A prorogation is the period between two sessions of a legislative body. When a legislature or parliament is prorogued, it is still constituted (that is, all members remain as members and a general election is not necessary), but all orders of the body (bills, motions, etc.) are expunged. (In the British parliament, this has now changed somewhat in that Public Bills can be carried over from one session to another.)
In the British and Canadian parliamentary systems, this is usually due to the completion of the agenda set forth in the Speech from the Throne (in the UK, called the legislative programme, and also "the Queen's Speech"). Legislatures and parliaments, once prorogued, remain in recess until summoned again by the Queen, Governor General, or Lieutenant Governor, and a new session is begun with the State Opening of Parliament and the Speech from the Throne.
In short, prorogation means that Stephen Harper is asking for parliament to be suspended to buy his Conservative government some time.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has formally asked the Governor General to shut down Parliament until January.
It's a bid to avoid Monday's non-confidence vote that would bring down his minority Conservative government.
Harper - his job on the line - has spent nearly two hours at Rideau Hall today talking with Michaelle Jean.
He cancelled an afternoon appearance in Woodstock, Ont., as the critical meeting dragged on.
The Governor General has already been consulting with constitutional experts about her options, but it's unclear when she will announce her decision.
The opposition coalition told Jean that Harper no longer enjoys the confidence of the House of Commons and asked her to refuse prorogation.
The Liberal and NDP leaders have requested a meeting with Jean before she makes her decision.
December 4, 2008 at 08:57 am by Tina Kells, 608 views, 10 comments
Most Recommended Comment
Recommendations (22)
lovespring
Paris, France
Barbara McPherson
Nanaimo, Canada
Jason Sanders
Vancouver, Canada
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (10)
at 09:44 on December 4th, 2008
Harper wanted this for one reason and one reason only. He cannot bear to lose. He cannot acknowledge his culpability, he cannot co-operate with anyone, and he is willing to sacrifice the Canadian people and our Parliamentary system on the altar of his own ego.
The bottom line is he was facing a non-confidence vote in the house. If he does not have the confidence of the majority of the house our system dictates that he must step down and call an election.
This has happened many times over the life of our country.
Never before in Canada's history, for any reason, has a Prime Minister facing a non-confidence motion requested prorogation simply to save his job and postpone facing a Parliament that no longer has confidence in his ability to govern.
Mr. Harper will spin a web of obfuscation and justification but the simple facts I have stated above are all that is important.
A precedent has now been set which will turn our system on its head and degrades the democratic principles on which it is anchored.
In the future, any Prime Minister who is presiding over a minority parliament, and who is facing a non-confidence vote, can simply prorogue rather than face the house and the consequences by calling an election.
For the next two months Harper is effectively the dictator of Canada. He can govern by Order in Council and does not have to answer to Parliament!
He will spend a fortune to spin a web of lies to justify his own intransigence and inability to function within Canada's Parliamentary democracy.
His opportunistic attack on Quebecers as a whole, spewing the epithet 'separatist' onto the duly elected parliamentarians of the Bloc runs the risk of dividing Canada by re-igniting sovereignty efforts in Quebec. Not the actions of a responsible Prime Minister or party who put Canada first but a total abrogation of that responsibility simply to cling to power.
He has, as I knew he would finally shown his true colours.
He, his ego and the yes men in his party are a serious danger to all of us and to the fundamentals and functionality of our system, and I for one will fight with everything I have to bring him and his party down during the cooling off period as soon as the House returns in January.
I will support the coalition and its members relentlessly during this hiatus and assist them in staying the course under the propaganda onslaught that is sure to ooze from the Conservative Party. Come January, Mr Harper must go!
at 11:26 on December 4th, 2008
It really is an outrage! People who thought the Coalition was unconstitutional (which it IS NOT in a Constitutional Monarchy which is what Canada is) should be shouting in the streets about this! In Vancouver there is a rally tonight (Thursday December 4, 2008) at the Vancouver Convention Center http://www.ufcw1518.com/view.php?id=2678
Newly elected mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson, is expected to speak. If you support Canada's political system and the Coalition please attend. Starts at 6pm.
Source: ufcw1518.com
at 12:06 on December 4th, 2008
Thanks Tina,
If I was in Vancouver I would be there, and I hope Gregor doesn't mince words!
at 10:12 on December 4th, 2008
Hum, well I hope not. It does not sound Democratic nor would it achieve much other then delaying the inevitable.
at 11:09 on December 4th, 2008
The delay alone, during the economic crisis, is reason enough to turf his ass out!
at 11:35 on December 4th, 2008
I just stumbled upon this blog about the prorogue. Thought I would share it with all of you.
Source: ahhhfuckit.blogspot.com
at 18:03 on December 4th, 2008
If Harper gets the chance to write it, you can bet it will be filled with threatening references and Bush style reasoning. That's one of the reasons that has pushed the opposition into the murky waters that they're about to tread. And you can bank on the Rhetoric King capitalizing on every step they make.
at 13:37 on December 4th, 2008
I'm glad to see that people in Canada are finally waking up to the importance of voting in elections. I disagree with most of the comments tho. Harper miscalculated in his gamesmanship and needs to bear some blame here, but to expect a responsible budget within two weeks of election and before we see what the elephant to the south of us is doing would be irresponsible. The real issue that brought the NDP and Liberals together was the threat of withdrawing the parties subsidies. The Bloc(a provincial separatist party) will support that which is good for Quebec but not necessarily the rest of Canada. All the party leaders must share blame for this mess they are presenting to the electorate. Perhaps in the next month they can learn to "play nice" with each other. We certainly don't need to waste 400 million on another election.
at 16:47 on December 4th, 2008
Barbara,
"The real issue that brought the NDP and Liberals together was the threat of withdrawing the parties subsidies." That was a trigger, but only the tip of a much larger iceberg in my opinion, though that alone was good enough reason if you understand the implications.
Harper laid out a brutal right-wing agenda thinking that he could do just about anything he wanted, and what he wants is for Canada to be totally like the USA and then to merge with his favorite country.
The reason US elections and elected US officials do not reflect the will of the people, is because they are totally beholding to corporations and rich special interest groups, due to private funding. For a democracy to really reflect the peoples' will it is imperative to cut off the influence peddling which always shows up in that kind of corporate funded system. Jean Chretien, though I didn't agree with much of what he did, brought in the legislation which made Canada a real democracy and cut the corporations off at the knees, and they didn't like it! Virtually all the other successful democracies in the industrialized world have moved away from private to public funding of their parties.
Corporations always support right-wing governments because right-wing governments are always pro-business even to the detriment of the population. Thus it has always been throughout history, and Mussolini and Hitler demonstrated the results and consequences of that kind of unbridled terrible alliance better in Germany and Italy than anywhere else, other than possibly where the USA is ominously heading today.
23 million dollars is peanuts in the federal budget, but he tried to pass the move off as a "cost cutting measure". Not at all! It was a direct attack on the opposition parties' abilities, in an age of ever more expensive campaigns, to be competitive in an election with a party that has limitless access to the deep pockets of global trans-national corporations and special interest groups, specially from the USA.
He wanted to rig the system so the right-wing could dominate Canadian politics in perpetuity! Don't for a moment think any different.
Last election he began by telling Canadians he wanted to "completely destroy" the Liberal party, remember? This sly move was just another way of doing so.
He also revealed his plan to reverse gains made by women to receive equal pay for equal work. The gains of this long battle fought for woman's rights, and still not fully won, would have been swept away, and the struggle for sexual equality set back 50 years!
Next he was going to attack the hard fought and totally necessary ability of unions to legally strike and force collective bargaining!
Labour fought a bloody battle against corporations and governments for 200 years to gain those rights, and I do mean a bloody battle!
And I don't believe his right-wing neocon agenda would have stopped there. Remember when he gained his first mandate and progressives fearfully whispered about his secret agenda? To me his agenda wasn't secret back then, and the cutting edge of it was finally exposed this week.
Couple that with no indication of direct stimulus for the economy when every other country inj the industrialized world is producing stimulus packages and in my opinion the opposition parties had no choice if they were going to fulfill their mandate to those who elected them.
They did not begin this uncharted process laden with possible political pitfalls just to grab power. They were actually doing what our system demands of them even, if it means great political risk.
They saw the danger of a man like Harper and the group of bullies behind him and their corporate patrons, and they took a stand. Thank goodness!
at 17:49 on December 4th, 2008
"They did not begin this uncharted process laden with possible political pitfalls just to grab power. They were actually doing what our system demands of them even, if it means great political risk.
They saw the danger of a man like Harper and the group of bullies behind him and their corporate patrons, and they took a stand. Thank goodness!"
Bravo to you sir. I agree with you 100% on this. The real issues at stake are not being exposed. The other parties should wake up and use the power of truthful information to put an end to Harpers slithering.
Perhaps Canadians will finally get to see the true colors of Harper during his 'finest hour'. Beware the snake oil salesman, though. If he has his way, he'll ultimately create the 51st State......the State of Confusion.