It seems that the issue indeed resonates with a lot of Canadians:
In a display that was anything but apathetic, thousands of Canadians of varying political stripes clogged city streets across Canada demanding Prime Minister Stephen Harper reopen Parliament and get back to work.
Hordes of protesters crammed Toronto’s downtown square, cradling signs denouncing the Prime Minister’s decision to suspend Parliament until early March.
More than 3,000 people closed down a busy section of Yonge Street to sing, march and chant anti-Harper slogans.
Source. We didn't get that many people in Winnipeg, but it wasn't a bad turnout, as the following photos will show:
The Free Press estimates the turnout in Winnipeg at "over 300", which is more than Calgary or Edmonton got (surprise surprise). But even those cities got significant rallies apparently; perhaps it was unfair of me to offhandedly comment that the Calgary organizers could consider it a success if they got more people out than those in Brandon. And lest we Winnipeggers get too smug, Waterloo and London got over 500 each.
In any case, one wonders if Harper's worried yet. He ought to be...
His attitude should come as no surprise, though his candour might:
OTTAWA–Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says it's a lot easier for the government to operate without Parliament in session.
"As a minister, I often get more done when the House is not in session," he said as thousands of Canadians were preparing to mount protests across the country against Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to suspend Parliament until March 3.
... and increasingly often, they don't like what they see. Most recently, the Economist has an article on Harper's decision to prorogue Parliament. Nothing really new here, but it shows how the Harper government appears to international observers.
Happily, Canadians don't seem too happy with the latest Conservative shenanigans either:
Canadians following Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to prorogue Parliament were nearly twice as likely to oppose the move as favour it, an EKOS poll suggests.
The poll, released exclusively to CBC News on Thursday, found the majority of Canadians surveyed — 67 per cent — are at least somewhat aware of Harper's decision to prorogue, or shut down, Parliament until March.
Of those who were aware of the decision, 58 per cent opposed the move, the poll found. By comparison, 31 per cent of those polled supported the move. Opposition to the decision was highest among Liberal and NDP supporters and those with a university education.
"The initial evidence is that Canadians are indeed paying attention to the issue of prorogation, and they don't like it," said EKOS President Frank Graves.
Source. At this rate, the Cons could find themselves out of office sooner than they might think.
OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper's decision to shut down Parliament for the next two months is facing a growing public uprising, which is building on social networks across Canada and is set to spill over in dozens of protest rallies this month.
"Get back to work" is the rallying cry on a Facebook page that has been gaining thousands of supporters each day since it was launched last week – approaching 20,000 by the end of the day on Monday.
It now has chapters in about 20 major centres, including Toronto, and demonstrations are planned for Saturday, Jan. 23 in those cities.
Interesting. Is this the beginning of the end of the Harper era, or just wishful thinking on the Star's part? We'll have a better idea once the 23rd rolls around; hopefully the turnout will be high at the demos. The Facebook page for the planned rallies is here.
The Conservative government plans to shut down Parliament for two months, until after the Vancouver Winter Olympics, the Prime Minister's Office announced Wednesday.
The announcement triggered immediate condemnation from opposition MPs who labelled the Conservative government's move an "almost despotic" attempt to muzzle parliamentarians amid controversy over the Afghan detainees affair.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's spokesman, Dimitri Soudas, said the government sought the suspension to consult with Canadians, stakeholders and businesses as it moves into the "next phase" of its economic action plan amid signs of economic recovery.
"This is quite routine but it is also important to give Canadians an overview of where we will be taking the country over the next little while," Soudas told CBC News from Ottawa.
From the CBC. I wonder what his motivation could be? Oh yeah...
Opposition parties have already warned that prorogation would disrupt the inquiry of a parliamentary committee looking into accusations that the government ignored warnings about the torture of Afghan detainees. Strategically, prorogation also prevents question period criticisms from the opposition parties during the Olympics.
Seriously, how much of this crap can he be allowed to get away with?
Rumours swirling around Ottawa suggest the Conservative government is thinking of shutting down Parliament until after the Olympics, killing some of its own bills but also ending the discussion of Afghan detainees that is nibbling away at Tory popularity.
“I have heard that from some of the public servants,” Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale said Monday of a potential prorogation. “The word they are getting is ‘get ready to clear the decks. Anything that needs to get done before a parliamentary session ends, get it done.' ”
Conservative staff members said they also have received hints that a prorogation may be in the offing. But a spokeswoman for Government House Leader Jay Hill said his office “won't indulge the Hill rumour mill.”
The rumours suggest that Parliament would return in March, when the Games are over, with a new budget that could be used to provoke an election.
Source. Hopefully the electorate will begin to tire of this soon...
A lot of people say Canadian politics is boring. The events of the past week certainly give the lie to that belief, though. Our current political crisis is attracting substantial attention from the international media; interestingly, they're a lot more upfront about the situation than our own news outlets:
It's pretty obvious to foreign journalists what Harper's real motives are. Of course, the domestic press wants to seem impartial (except the Sun Media papers; Winnipeg's example had the screaming headline "NO! NO! NO!" the other day).
The Economist has a nice piece on this. It's a reasonably fair summary; if I have any quibble it's that their treatment of the Bloc is a bit one-dimensional (yes, they are sovereigntists, but there's more to them than that).
Meanwhile, Sean in Ottawa, with a bit of help from josh, has this to say on babble:
Stephen Harper wants to shut down Parliament just because he does not agree with it.
Some say this is unprecedented.
In fact, Harper is following parliamentary tradition. Consider the following precedents:
1629: King Charles I in England 1799: Napoleon in France 1913: Victoriano Huerta in Mexico 1933: Adolf Hitler in Germany 1936: Fransisco Franco in Spain 1939: Benito Mussolini in Italy 1973: Augusto Pinochet in Chile
1975: Indira Gandhi in India
1999: Perez Musharaff in Pakistan 2008: Stephen Harper in Canada.
Maybe Harper should consider what happened to many of those leaders. In a similar vein is this video, courtesy of The Harper Dictatorship:
My suspicion is that over the holidays the Cons will temper the budget a bit, and the Liberals will get nervous and chicken out come the resumption of Parliament in January. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing; the budget will be less harsh than it would otherwise be, and the Cons will thus be in power just long enough to be blamed for the hard economic times that we're in for.
Canada isn't the only country facing a parliamentary crisis, though:
Politicians in Australia’s most populous state could be breath-tested for alcohol before voting on laws after a series of late-night incidents that have embarrassed the centre-left government.
New South Wales state lawmaker Andrew Fraser resigned from his conservative opposition frontbench role after shoving a female colleague at the Christmas party celebrations.
“Breath test this mob,” said a front page headline in Sydney’s mass-selling Daily Telegraph newspaper. State police minister Matt Brown was dumped from his portfolio in September after allegedly “dirty” dancing in his underwear over the chest of a female colleague after a drunken post-budget office party.
Conservative opposition Leader Barry O’Farrell said he would support alcohol breath tests for drunkenness for lawmakers before they entered parliament, while Green MPs John Kaye and Lee Rhiannon also backed the plan, along with the parliament’s speaker.
