Alright, I'm going to attempt to respond to your post here,
Ralph B--and I'm going to assume that your response are
the red text that follow the rows of hyphens ("------"). Having said that, I'd like to introduce you to the "Quote" button--it makes conversations on here
so much easier to follow.
Ralph B said:
Does this mean we have to accept it and allow this BS they are there to WORK for thier constituants Not spew BS that people either know or don't rightly care??
We should absolutely accept it.
The role of
Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition is to hold
Her Majesty's Government for Canada accountable for its conduct, its agenda and, in general, its performance. The Official Opposition acts as a constant "Government-in-waiting," ready to take over the reins at a moment's notice (this is why the Official Opposition keeps a critic for each minister--the "Shadow Cabinet"). One of the best ways for the Official Opposition to perform this function is to highlight what the Government has--and hasn't--done, and the same is true the other way around. The Government has a right (as much as I despise our present Government) to defend itself against such criticism with its own criticism of the Official Opposition. The elected
House of Commons is necessarily partisan--we can't take the politics out of politics, but we can try to strike a more effective balance.
Ralph B said:
again it has been made clear that Harper is the only moron to porouge !! what you believe is suspend where all legislation put on hold NOT porouge where all legislation is wiped and must be re introduced, BIG waste of parlimentry time and taxpayors dollars!!
You're
absolutely incorrect.
While
The Right Honourable Stephen Harper P.C., M.P. (
Calgary Southwest), the
Prime Minister has indeed prorogued the legislature twice, this is meant to be a routine procedure. While I very much disagree with the prime minister's reasons for prorogation (and would argue, but on a separate line of conversation, that his actions on this issue may have damaged the concept of responsible government in our constitutional structure, in terms of the Government being responsible to the elected House), the fact of the matter is that
prorogation is [normally] a routine procedure that happens up to four or five times--two of our Parliaments have even been prorogued
six times.
In majority government situations, prorogations are normally performed about once every year--whenever the Government feels that it has accomplished the majority of its throne speech agenda. When Parliament then resumes, the Government can introduce a new throne speech, and set a new agenda and tone for the next session. The only Parliament to have gone unprorogued in recent memory is the
38th Parliament, during the premiership of
The Right Honourable Paul Martin P.C., the
21[/size=1]st[/size] Prime Minister--and the only reason that he never prorogued the House is because his Government didn't survive long enough for it to be an issue.
I urge you to review our parliamentary history. We are currently on our
40th Parliament, and here's how many times each Parliament has been prorogued since Confederation:
- 1st Parliament had 4 prorogations
- 2nd Parliament had 1 prorogation
- 3rd Parliament had 4 prorogations
- 4th Parliament had 3 prorogations
- 5th Parliament had 3 prorogations
- 6th Parliament had 3 prorogations
- 7th Parliament had 5 prorogations
- 8th Parliament had 4 prorogations
- 9th Parliament had 3 prorogations
- 10th Parliament had 3 prorogations
- 11th Parliament had 2 prorogations
- 12th Parliament had 6 prorogations [Parliament was extended beyond 5 years due to war]
- 13th Parliament had 3 prorogations
- 14th Parliament had 3 prorogations
- 15th Parliament was never prorouged
- 16th Parliament had 3 prorogations
- 17th Parliament had 5 prorogations
- 18th Parliament had 5 prorogations
- 19th Parliament had 5 prorogations
- 20th Parliament had 4 prorogations
- 21st Parliament had 6 prorogations
- 22nd Parliament had 4 prorogations
- 23rd Parliament was never prorogued
- 24th Parliament had 4 prorogations
- 25th Parliament was never prorogued
- 26th Parliament had 2 prorogations
- 27th Parliament had 1 prorogation
- 28th Parliament had 3 prorogations
- 29th Parliament had 1 prorogation
- 30th Parliament had 3 prorogations
- 31st Parliament was never prorogued
- 32nd Parliament had 1 prorogation
- 33rd Parliament had 1 prorogation
- 34th Parliament had 2 prorogations
- 35th Parliament had 1 prorogation
- 36th Parliament had 1 prorogation
- 37th Parliament had 2 prorogations
- 38th Parliament was never prorogued
- 39th Parliament had 1 prorogation
- 40th Parliament [so far] has had 2 prorogations
I hope this demonstrates that prorogation is, contrary to your rabid insistence, routine.