Yesterday morning, Stephen Harper visited the Governor General, and asked her to prorogue Parliament. He did it for no other reason than to prevent the House of Commons from exercising its right to voice its lack of confidence in Mr. Harper and his Government. Let me note off the top that from this point forward, I will not refer to Mr. Harper as the Prime Minister. The reason for this is simple: to be Prime Minister, one must uphold Canadian democracy and hold the confidence of the House of Commons. Mr. Harper can lay claim to neither of those, and as a result, I no longer recognize him as Prime Minister of Canada.
Since being elected in 2006, Mr. Harper has made a career of bullying the opposition with one nasty piece of legislation, daring them at each turn to vote him down. In each case, the opposition relented, and allowed Mr. Harper to pass controversial legislation for fear of forcing an election. This time, the opposition called his bluff, and decided to go for a vote. Mr. Harper, in his wisdom, writhed in agony, and instead of finally allowing Canada's democratically elected Parliament to vote, had the doors slammed shut instead.
I have great respect and affection for the Governor General. I believe that Her Excellency has brought a level of grace and charm to her office that elected officials can only dream of having. With that said, I must respectfully say that her decision to allow Mr. Harper to prorogue Parliament was the wrong one. Yes, it headed off a political mess, but a terrible precedent was set in allowing a Prime Minister to prorogue the House for no reason other than to avoid being fired. I do take solace, however, in the fact that the meeting lasted two and a half hours. These sorts of meeting generally don't last that long, and I can only hope that Her Excellency read Mr. Harper the riot act, expressed a measure of disgust at his tactics, and advised him that if he didn't clean up his act, and ended up falling in January, that she'd allow the coalition to take over.
This was borne out when one looks at Mr. Harper's statement after he emerged from Rideau Hall. I don't think I've ever seen him so chastened and conciliatory. I continue to believe that his statements and actions were not enough. It will take a change of astronomical proportions for Canadians to have much trust in him after this one.
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9 comments:
Ok, so the coalition has a legal right to exist and that is well and good, and Harper excercises the legal right to prorogue and thats bad.
Hypocrisy just never goes out of style with you Liberals, does it?
Anony: The Conservatives wrote the book on hypocrisy. They attack the Liberals for legally forming a coalition claiming its undemocratic, then they think they should be immune from attack for legally but undemocratically relying on the governor general? How does that make sense?
The liberals attack the Cons because its the Cons who pretensed the argument on democracy, then their the ones who abuse it.
-scott
thescottross
Typical arrogance of the Liberal party.
It is actually Liberals who are being hypocritical. If you justify your coup by explaining the powers minority coalition partners have in the British parliamentary system, how can you be critical of Harper for using his powers granted under the same system.
We are part of the 51% majority and you are a self destructing gong show ripping up the country for your self serving interests. How can anyone be a proud Liberal right now?
This coalition is a failure and a complete disgrace. Your brand has been exposed as saying or doing whatever it takes and everyone is aware that your party has zero principle as evidenced by the polls. Siding with the NDP during an economic time of crisis means forever you will be linked to NDP economics and not slaying the deficit.
Can you tell me what a Liberal stands for these days?
ALL politicians and their parties are hypocrits.
scottross,
the Liberals are mad, mad because they had to abstain to survive,
mad because the Cons killed their hopes for Dion.
The Libs were in survival mode and presented a weak leader because of
themselves, their party, Adscam, what ever.
It was their own doing or undoing, and your political opponents made the best of it.
That's how the game is played.
Who or what is at fault for putting your party in a weak position,
vulnerable to attack from PMSH and the Cons.
Start there. Rebuild, Canada needs a strong Liberal party.
The Liberals wrote the book on hypocrisy. They attack the Tories for legally proroguing parliament and claiming its undemocratic, then they think they should be immune from attack for legally but undemocratically forming a coalition with a party that wants to break up the country. How does that make sense?
See how that line of reasoning works?
Harper suspended democracy to keep his job. That's just wrong.
Harper breaks his own law and gives a BS story to the GG to let him have an election. The only reason Harper wanted an election was to get a majority before the economic fallout. Now he suspends Parliament, what will that change when the House sits again?
Of course Harper will claim the majority of people don’t want a coalition. What if the majority of people don’t want Harper, will he resign?
This was a bad move and now we are going to pay dearly for it. More so if we continue on as if the known opinion of the public does not matter.
It hurts but ignoring it does not solve any of the party's current problems.
Can you or the Liberal strategists not see the reality here? Harper does not have to claim a majority of Canadians are against the coalition because that is the truth by a wide margin.
Liberals have come down quite far from the glory days. I am embarrassed to be a Liberal right now. To be honest I agree with the Conservatives on this issue of the coalition. It is undemocratic and needs to be stopped. Manley is right. Dion must go now. He is hurting the party with every word he speaks. I want to cross the floor every time I hear him say "we liberals".
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