Prorogues???

I learned a new word a couple of days ago - prorogue. Prorogue is a rather arcane term used to describe the temporary suspension of Parliament. Putting it on hold, if you like. The Canadian Parliament is in crisis right now, and Harper's Conservative government has asked the Governor-General to prorogue Parliament. And I always thought Canadian politics were boring, and I always thought that Stephane Dion (the Liberal party leader) was one of the most colorless and boring politicians ever. Well, watch this.



You may recall that there were federal elections in Canada a couple of months ago, and Harper's Conservatives won, but without a majority of the seats. All together, the opposition parties, the Liberals, the NDP, and Bloc Quebecois, have more seats than the Conservatives. After Harper introduced a plan last week in response to the economic crisis, the Opposition didn't think he was doing enough. They got together and announced that they would defeat the plan in a vote of no confidence and bring down the government. Normally that would mean new elections, but this time, the opposition is saying they would form a coalition government without elections. To my knowledge, this has never been done before. Harper's response is to ask the Governor-General of Canada (who's on a Eurpean trip) to prorogue Parliament until the New Year. I don't think that's ever been done before either. So all hell is breaking loose, but you'd never know it from the American media. Until this morning, I hadn't seen any mention of this in the New York Times, The Washington Post, or any of the other mainstream media outlets.

Harper seems to have taken a page from Bush's playbook in questioning the patriotism of anyone who disagrees with him. He also seems to have Bush's disregard for the facts.



Great fun, isn't it?