Propagation: Seeds & scions (7)

7 ideas sprouting »

1. Around here, most pundits are up in arms … but then again that’s what they’re paid for.

   The reaction among my friends and family ranges from irritation to indifference. From my understanding, people are more concern about the government taking what they see as a 3 month holiday than they are about the constitutional issue or the parliamentary precedent. I personally don’t give much credibility to the theory that politicians are on vacation when Parliament isn’t sitting. Nor do I give much credibility to the notion that the government cannot work on the economic recovery when Parliament is sitting, which was the official justification for prorogation.

   The opposition did manage to pull an anti-prorogation rally day that attracted about 25 000 people around the country. The Tories did take a relatively significant hit in polls. My guess is that people who are making the biggest fuss about this weren’t going to vote for the Conservatives any way and that the media will progressively forget about it once they get an other squeaky toy to chew on.

   For my part, I think this move was stupid and childish, but I’ll probably still vote for the Conservatives next time I’m called to the polls and I don’t think this prorogation business will be an issue next election.

   Seed planted by Maxime — 07 February 2010 @ 19:56

2. Maxime, thanks for being the first Canadian to comment on this one. And I am sorry for not having seen your comment in the moderation queue until two days had gone by.

   Seed planted by MSS — 10 February 2010 @ 01:51

3. A lot of people I know are upset about how partisan and calculating proroguing parliament was. A lot of other people I know are somewhat amused.

   One T-shirt I saw here: http://suaveactivist.com sums up the amused sentiment. It’s a smiling Harper with the title “Going Prorogue”. Reminds me of Sarah Palin!

   Seed planted by Angus — 16 February 2010 @ 22:22

4. Maybe Canadians reformers have been too busy with the anti-prorogation protests to look in on Fruits and Votes.

   This was no ordinary annual prorogation. In that case it would have been shortly before the new throne speech, after the work of the session had been completed.

   In this case, the last day before the Christmas adjournment the House of Commons had passed a motion by a three-vote margin requiring production of the documents requested by the parliamentary committee investigating the Afghan-detainee-transfer affair. The government apparently intended to refuse, which would put them in contempt of parliament. The Prime Minister had no plan for what would happen next. (If he has one now, he still has not said so.) So he prorogued in order for the government, he said, to “recalibrate” its agenda. A spate of recalibration and prorogation jokes followed.

   But suspending parliament to escape a contempt motion looked like no joke. It looked like suspending democracy.

   Canada’s national newspaper, the Globe and Mail, took it very seriously. As soon as Harper announced the prorogation, they wrote an extremely rare front-page editorial denouncing the decision to “shut down parliamentary debate entirely.”

   More than 175 political scientists and professors wrote
   an open letter saying “the Prime Minister has violated the trust of Parliament and of the Canadian people.”

   Even the Economist in Britain took notice.

   The January 23rd rallies in 60 cities were a very spontaneous event. They followed a spontaneous collection of Facebook protests which, in only a few days, resulted in a consensus on which Facebook site to join, which very soon had 25,000 members. The media took notice. In a couple more weeks it had 210,000 members. But no one knew whether this would translate into bodies on the streets. No one had ever seen rallies organized on Facebook. Even in our small town, when we expected 40 people to meet in front of the MP’s office, we got 150, most of whom had only read about it in the local daily the day before.

   It all took the media and pollsters by surprise. Pollsters had predicted there would be no reaction, that Canadians wouldn’t care. That fed the protests: people wanted to show they did care.

   The Globe followed up with a full-page editorial the day before the Jan. 23rd rallies. And another the Monday after.

   The protests have continued. The Facebook group has grown to 225,647. Everyone has a Facebook page: Stephen Harper’s has 30,938 fans. As an offshoot of the Facebook protests, the page “Can this Onion Ring get more fans than Stephen Harper?” has 180,014 fans, while its francophone counterpart “Pour que ce stylo ait plus d’amis que Stephen Harper” has another 51,988.

   Seed planted by Wilf Day — 21 February 2010 @ 16:29

5. Prorogation has almost completely died out in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific, as described in a 2004 paper by the speaker of the WA legislative assembly. The Australian senate has a peculiar reaction to prorogations, they insist they are not effected by them and have made a point of meeting after a prorogation. Incidentally, the same paper tells us the clever New Zealanders have abolished the Speech from the Throne/Governor-General’s Speech in favour of an annual statement to parliament by the prime minister which is then subject to debate.

   Seed planted by Alan — 23 February 2010 @ 14:59

6. Didn’t Carmen Lawrence, as West Australian Premier, prorogue Parliament before the 1989 election to stop an Upper House committee inquiring into damaging allegations about the “WA Inc” scandals? (relying on memory as I can’t find a reference on Wikipedia).

   Seed planted by Tom Round — 23 February 2010 @ 22:11

7. @Tom

   I think you are right although I am equally devoid of a citation.

   No Right Turn reports that the Canadian disease is spreading with a prorogation until September in the Cook Islands. Clearly, the New Zealand practice of requiring a vote of the house before a dissolution or prorogation is better. In fact it is hard to see why prorogation is needed in a democracy at all.

   Seed planted by Alan — 23 February 2010 @ 23:49

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