Harper to Parliament: Go Home And Leave Me Alone

A follow-up to yesterday’s post about Canada’s constitutional crisis.

The Governor-General has, at the request of the Prime Minister, prorogued Canada’s Parliament until January 26, 2009. PM Harper will govern without a Parliament and without any substantial claim to political legitimacy until that time, since it looks like he’s running away from a no-confidence vote.

Which is what he’s doing, of course. The whole thing gets explained quite concisely in this piece custom-written for the navel-gazing US Americans south of the forty-ninth parallel.

If this sort of thing had happened in, say, Angloa or Laos or Uruguay, no one would have been particularly surprised. Canada, though, I would have held to a higher standard. Canadians of all political beliefs have got to be pretty pissed off right now.

Burt Likko

Pseudonymous Portlander. Homebrewer. Atheist. Recovering litigator. Recovering Republican. Recovering Catholic. Recovering divorcé. Recovering Former Editor-in-Chief of Ordinary Times. House Likko's Words: Scite Verum. Colite Iusticia. Vivere Con Gaudium.