What do you think of the Governor General's decision?

We can expect Harper to push the envelope as far as he possibly can. Until electoral reform enters in to this discourse, Harper will maintain the upper hand in the public relations war. To the extent that first past the post does not produce legitimate governments and representation for the majority, none of the options are truly legitimate. For one, the 6.5% who voted Green in the last election get no representation either way.

One of the biggest dangers I see is that by positioning coalitions as undemocratic, illegitimate and "un-Canadian", they are poisoning the well for proportional representation before the debate even begins.

jrootham wrote:

I looked in Hansard and found the text of the prorogation.  There is a tiny sliver of good news there for precedent.  Normally I believe prorogation is sine die and the recall of Parliament is up to the Prime Minister.  In this case there is a specific date of recall built into the proclamation, in fact there are two proclamations, the recall proclamation is already issued.

Given the date we are looking at missing 2 weeks of sitting.  In the future the precedent will be that a Prime Minister can use prorogation to stall for a short period of time (at least in terms of how Parliament counts time) not indefinitely.

That is the limitation on Jean being "pro rogue", if she can be considered to be at all. She will be if she allows a repetition in similar circumstances in January, but the circumstances won't be similar and Harper would just ask for dissolution either before or after a VONC. Whether she is theoretically right or not, she may have saved the opposition parties from themselves, especially if she would have acceded to a request to dissolve parliament (we won't know that until at least January).

It may be seen in hindsight as the right decision practically if not theoretically. Certainly it is a popular decision amongst Canadians generally.

Last night I cooked Perogies for dinner for us and the kids. I followed it by a Banana soufflé to celebrate our status as an official banana republic. 

This is disappointing, the Governor General should have assesed the situation more meticuously before proroguing parliament. It was not in the country's best interest for such a move especially in times of economic woes, we need a functioning governement as we speak. We had a coalition, constituting 62% of the Canadian vote that seems stable and Harper did not hit base on the issue of the economy. Instead, GG decides to grant Harper's request which is simply outrageous, I mean if it wasn't for the stirred outrage of the opposition we're looking at a man who did not even have the economy at the top of his agenda. Sure come the end of January, he's going to prepare a minimal stimulus package proposal that will not be sufficient. He will claim he is trying to appease opposition and will continually mock Canadian governance with the silly antics of right-wing politics. I just can't stand Harper and his cronies, and I mean Jim Flaherty is just a complete joke.