GG agrees to suspend Parliament House prorogued until Jan. 26, budget expected Jan. 27
David Akin, Canwest News Service Published: Thursday, December 04, 2008
OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper did his best Thursday to douse a political fire that threatened to consume his young government, inviting his opponents to give him advice on a new federal budget minutes after he won a request to have Parliament suspended until Jan. 26.
"The opposition criticism is that we have to focus on the economy immediately," Harper said. "Today's decision will give us an opportunity . . . to focus on the economy and to work together."
Harper's best, though, may not be good enough. The Liberals and NDP vowed to push ahead with their plans to form a coalition government even as some Liberals voiced doubts about the wisdom of their strategy or the abilities of the man who would lead that coalition, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion.
Harper's ace-in-the-hole, so far, may be public opinion.
A new poll done this week exclusively for Canwest News Service and Global National shows that not only do most Canadians reject a Liberal-NDP coalition, many would punish the opposition parties by voting Conservative. Indeed, pollster Ipsos Reid found that the Conservatives enjoy the support this week of 46 per cent of voters, an improvement of 10 percentage points from the general election results, and enough to give them a whopping majority should the country go to the polls.
The Conservative party has been doing its own polling over the past few nights and has been getting similar results, said a party official speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Last Friday, I asked Canadians to give us their opinions on the parliamentary situation. That feedback has been overwhelming and very clear. They want Canada's government to continue to work on the agenda that Canadians voted for - our plan to strengthen the economy," Harper said.
Still, Harper's aggressive and unprecedented steps to defend his government may leave some long-term scars. Quebec nationalism is on the rise in the wake of Harper's fierce attacks on the notion of "separatist" Bloc Quebecois MPs propping up a coalition.
Some Conservatives are also privately questioning Harper's political and strategic judgment, something that could weaken him politically.
In agreeing to Harper's request to prorogue, or suspend, Parliament just days after a throne speech, Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean set a historical precedent that could affect future Parliaments.
The remarkable day began at Rideau Hall, the official residence of the Governor General. After meeting with Jean there for more than two hours, Harper emerged to say the Governor General had, on his advice, suspended Parliament. Then, speaking to reporters, Harper seemed, for the first time, to accept some responsibility for the crisis.
"The public is very frustrated with the situation in Parliament," he said, speaking French. "We are all responsible."
Later, speaking English, he said, "Obviously we have to do some trust building here on both sides."
Harper's admission that he helped stoke the political rhetoric came the day after one of his caucus members, Ontario MP Bob Dechert, said the Liberal and NDP effort to form a coalition government supported by the Bloc Quebecois was "close to treason and sedition."
The ferocity of those attacks has galvanized many Liberals and NDP MPs who say they simply don't trust Harper.
"Nothing has changed for us," said Dion. "We are more committed than ever with the coalition."
NDP Leader Jack Layton called it a "sad day for parliamentary democracy," and accused the prime minister of trying to "escape accountability."
"He's put a lock on the door of the House of Commons and he refuses to face the people of Canada through their elected representatives," Layton said in the foyer of the Commons.
But one Liberal MP, Toronto's Jim Karygiannis, told reporters he thinks the coalition is finished and called on Dion to resign immediately.
Karygiannis was later publicly admonished by leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff. But other Liberal MPs said the two-month break from Ottawa should be used to focus on building bridges to political opponents.
Because Parliament is prorogued, all the official business of the House of Commons is suspended. MPs will next return to the House of Commons at the end of January. Another throne speech will be read on Jan. 26 followed by the tabling of a federal budget on Jan. 27.
"The government's work, my work, over the next few weeks will be focused almost exclusively on preparing the federal budget," Harper said as he emerged from Rideau Hall and spoke to reporters during a windy hailstorm.
"I hope the other parties will be concentrating on exactly the same thing. Regardless of the machinations in Parliament, Canadians expect us to get on with this and that's what we're doing. That's the opportunity today presented to all of us."
The government will be unable to avoid confidence votes on both the throne speech and the budget, the first of which would likely happen in the first week of February.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe reaffirmed his support for the Liberal-NDP coalition in order to rid Quebec of what he referred to as Harper's ideological policies.
Duceppe accused Harper of inciting hatred against Quebecers in the rest of Canada by questioning the legitimacy of its elected representatives through his attacks in the House of Commons earlier this week.
"Stephen Harper has wittingly and brutally launched into the worst kind of politics - those of division, fear and lies," Duceppe said. "He has pushed his supporters into launching the worst attacks against Quebec that we have seen since the events of Meech (constitutional negotiations in the 1990s)."
Turning around an accusation levelled at the opposition this week by Conservatives, Duceppe said that, in proroguing Parliament and avoiding a confidence vote, Harper was being anti-democratic.
"It was a gesture that was unbecoming of a prime minister, unbecoming of a statesman and unbecoming of a democrat," said Duceppe.
The decision to prorogue two days before the government was to face a confidence vote in the House of Commons that it was almost certain to lose is sure to become a precedent future prime ministers may turn to, to keep their governments alive in similar circumstances.
"For the first time in the history of Canada, the prime minister of Canada is running away from the Parliament of Canada," Dion said. Prior to Harper's meeting with Jean, the three opposition leaders submitted a petition to her signed by 161 MPs urging her to deny Harper's request to prorogue Parliament.
Constitutionally, Jean had a choice: She could have granted prorogation with restrictions, preventing the government, for example, from making Senate or judicial appointments or negotiating foreign treaties until the prorogation ends. The prorogation, though, was granted with no restrictions.
She also could have refused Harper's request and sent him back to the Commons for a confidence vote Monday night that he would almost certainly have lost. Had that occurred, constitutional experts said Jean would most likely have invited Dion to form a government.
With files from Mike de Souza, Meagan Fitzpatrick and Juliet O'Neill
© Canwest News Service 2008
The  has been suspended until January 26, 2009, by Prime Minster Stephen Harper. On Thursday, Harper obtained the consent of the Governor General, , to  Parliament, a procedure which suspends the legislature without dissolving it. This prevents the Parliament from overthrowing the government and avoids calling a new election.
Michaëlle Jean, file photo 
A coalition of the  and the  had looked ready to overthrow the 's minority government led by Harper.

"The first order of business will be the presentation of a federal budget," Harper told reporters outside of the Governor's  residence. "Let's get on with actually working on a package. That's what I think Canadians want us to do, is work on the economy and work together, work together in the interest in Canada."

Stéphane Dion, the leader of the Liberal Party, who was positioned to become the new Prime Minister, said the coalition would still seek to replace Harper barring a "monumental change" in his policies.

"For the first time in the history of Canada, the prime minister of Canada is running away from the Parliament of Canada," Dion said. He said Harper has "placed partisan politics ahead of the interest of all Canadians."

"Nothing has changed for us," added Dion. "We are more committed than ever with the coalition."

New Democrat leader Jack Layton said it was a "sad day for parliamentary democracy," and that Harper was trying to "escape accountability."

"He's put a lock on the door of the House of Commons and he refuses to face the people of Canada through their elected representatives," Layton said, addressing press at the .

On Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Harper spoke to Canadians in a televised address.

"The Opposition is attempting to impose this deal without your say, without your consent, and without your vote. This is no time for backroom deals with the separatists; it is the time for Canada’s government to focus on the economy and specifically on measures for the upcoming budget.  This is a pivotal moment in our history," Harper said.