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The Canadian ‘Coup’ — Why Now?
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The Canadian ‘Coup’

by Bryan

The headline isn’t quite accurate: PM may suspend Parliament

OTTAWA – To save his job and his government, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected within Conservative circles to prorogue, or suspend, Parliament this week while his party blitzes the country with a public-relations campaign aimed at discrediting the notion of a Liberal-led coalition government.

The problem is that the Prime Minister can only ask the Canadian Governor General to ‘prorogue’ the Parliament, as that is a prerogative of the Governor General not the Prime Minister.

The next step is the Governor General’s Choice

OTTAWA – When Stephen Harper called on Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean on Sept. 7 and asked her to dissolve what he insisted was a “dysfunctional” Parliament for an Oct. 14 election, she bowed to his request.

If the Queen’s representative in Canada had qualms about Harper’s rationale for pulling the plug on his own minority government, she has never let on in public.

If Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean denies Harper an election, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion, or whoever is head of the official Opposition, would have to persuade Jean he had enough support from the other opposition parties to ensure the survival of a Liberal-led government for no less than six months.

But what if Harper is forced to go to her in the coming days to seek the dissolution of Parliament, this time because the three opposition parties lived up to their threats and defeated the Conservative government on a confidence issue in the Commons? With the Conservatives’ re-elected minority government just weeks old, would Jean use her power to say “no,” and instead ask the leader of the official Opposition to form a government?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has 143 votes in Parliament. The coalition of Liberals, New Democrats, and Bloc Québécois have 163 votes. In a parliamentary system, the majority of parliament rules as a representative of the majority of the people. Perhaps if Mr. Harper hadn’t interpreted his recent pickup of a few seats as a mandate to go after working women, the civil service, and political parties while ignoring the economy, he wouldn’t have these problems.

2 comments

1 LadyMin { 12.02.08 at 4:38 pm }

Harper has managed to alienate everyone. This is getting very interesting. You don’t usually see Canadians getting this fired up over politics.

2 Bryan { 12.02.08 at 5:22 pm }

The Bloc joining in was the real surprise, as the Liberals and NDP are sort of a fit ideologically. The economy is the key. Eastern Canada is feeling the downturn while the West is still not hurting quite as much, although the timber industry must be feeling pain from the housing bust.

Apparently there are Conservatives who are starting to shop for a new leader, just to spice things up.