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Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Minority government instability is not a good excuse for proroguing Parliament
Mr. Harper has recently claimed that proroguing Parliament was a good thing because the market is worried about the constant threat of an election. This isn't the most bizarre excuse that the government has given (that honour goes to the "we all have to watch the Olympics" excuse), but it is certainly close.
I agree with Tom Flanagan that investors pay more attention to the state of the economy than political manoeuvres in Parliament. There is a certain amount of arrogance on the part of Mr. Harper to claim that the economy lives and breathes with his Premiership. That is to say, even if there is an election and Michael Ignatieff wins, investors are unlikely to be scared away. There is no reason to think that the prospect of an election would drive away the movement of capital.
Even if there was reason to think that, proroguing Parliament would have little impact. I don't see why an investor who would be concerned amount an election taking place would be more concerned by the possibility of an election in a couple of weeks versus a couple of months. When Parliament sits again the prospect of an election will be there, which means that the possibility of an election taking place soon doesn’t really go away with proroguing Parliament. This is more of an argument for a majority government (though it is a dumb one) rather than for proroguing Parliament.
In the Tom Flanagan clip that I linked above, Dr. Flanagan presents his personal view on why Parliament had to be prorogued. He claims that it was needed to prevent Parliament from overreaching into foreign affairs. I'm not sure if I agree with his perspective of the authority of Parliament, but it is a far more honest discussion. If this was the real reasoning of the Harper government I wish they would say so, rather than trying to feed us bullshit.
Posted by Hugh MacIntyre on January 12, 2010 | Permalink
Comments
The notion that the Canadian government, all of it’s civil and public servants should be at work, dealing with all of the problems of the country, Canada, has a lot of resonance with most of the people. Parliament for them still provides an important mechanism of democratic accountability. Stephen Harper’s Proroguement represents a blatant attempt to subvert this avenue of promised even accountability. PM Stephen Harper and his government seriously underestimated the strong negative reaction to the decision to prorogue, for now things appear to have backfired for the Conservatives, with a surprisingly strong public awareness and outrage over the decision to prorogue, 63.6 per cent of those polled agreed that “suspending Parliament is antidemocratic and the government had slid from 42 per cent down to 35 per cent support as the Afghan detainee issue festered related to an issue of fundamental trust, accountability, disclosure, and too many people were worried there was a cover-up going on .Harper’s prorogue decision is really aimed at shutting down all parliamentary committees, particularly the special committee which had been investigating allegations that prisoners handed over by Canadian soldiers to Afghan authorities have been routinely tortured. Harper’s use of proroguement sets a dangerous precedent, as it is being used to shut down debate and avoid confidence votes that threaten to bring the government down. It makes MPs even less able to hold governments accountable than they already are. Clearly Harper’s pollster or someone in the Prime Minister’s Office made a very bad call. ” Harper is closer now to losing his government than to winning a majority,” Canada’s “intelligentsia” are particularly offended at proroguement. The Web 2.0 generation, such as the over 100,000 who joined the ‘Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament’ Facebook group, clearly has become politically engaged. And another Facebook group that grew rapidly is the one opposing the sale of NB Power to Quebec. The sleeping giants have been awakened and they are not about to go back to sleep.
Posted by: Canadian | 2010-01-12 7:08:35 AM
Not all proroguations are created equal.
The last two examples amount to an ejection seat for a government about to crash into the dirt.
Clearly the Prime Minister is abusing and misusing his discretionary powers. That is especially dangerous given how much of the Canadian Constitution is implicit and based upon tradition.
While the workings of Parliament are quite technical, and most citizens simply do not use words like "prorogue", it is safe to say we all understand abuse of power.
Harper is more Liberal than any Liberal, given the way he has further concentrated power in the PMO and descended into expedient politics. From his perspective, Parliament is an inconvenient wart on the butt of the Great Man. His contempt for Canada's few remaining vestiges of democracy shows in every move he makes.
There is a plus side to proroguing Parliament at this time. Most of the bills that were pending, represent very bad policy. I am pretty sure Conservative justice policy is based on American TV shows, as opposed to any real evidence or outcome-oriented analysis. Thus Harper has turned governance into a "reality" show.
It says a lot that only Facebook can save us!
Posted by: Colin Broughton | 2010-01-12 8:31:11 AM
Seems equivalent to an employee skipping work because he thinks he may be fired, and is trying to put off the inevitable.
Basically, Harper is avoiding work (if you can call it that?) and is doing so with pay. Why is there no pay cut or reduction during prorogation?
If I decide not to go to work or to fulfill a particular part of my contract with my employer there are financial consequences!
Posted by: Owen Taylor | 2010-01-12 10:32:00 PM
Time to throw this bum out before he does any more damage to our democracy.
Posted by: DrGreenthumb | 2010-01-13 9:45:36 AM
@Dr Greenthumb:
It is not damage to dumbocracy that we should be concerned about; rather, that there is no apparent means by which to hold the petty, fuzzy fascist Harpo to account. Parliament may be one way. Secession, proper republicanism and a vigilant, sovereign society are others that Canadians will be unlikely to glom onto any time soon...
Posted by: JC | 2010-01-13 9:44:25 PM
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