Buzz Word Of The Day: Prorogue

What is this obsession with prorogation?

Rallies? For prorogation? Hey, if it works for some. Good on them.

Still.

By this time next year, no one will even remember what it is. It'll all be a bad dream morphing into some other cause. Pro-gay-tion? Of course I'm for a Pro-Gay-Nation! 

This is pretty much how I remember things as The Concordian explains:

If members of the public are serious about their opposition to prorogation – and not merely jumping on any anti-Harper bandwagon – their anger should be directed towards the system that allows this to happen, rather than at a politician who is using the tools provided to him by our constitution and by the precedents set by those who came before him.

Prorogation has shown the holes in our system which was created for a different country at a different time, when political parties did not exist and the Sovereign (or their representative, like Canada's Governor General) wielded real power.

The Governor General has become a figurehead, an individual with enormous power but who cannot use it without direction from the Prime Minister. The executive has become a puppet of the government.

But of course, they're not really serious. Going to a rally to "save" democracy by busting Harper's balls is a little like trying to save it from the "notwithstanding clause." You can't attack the people who apply a legitimate political tool; you have to question the system itself.

In other words, if the rally was about "Let's remove proroguing powers from Canadian politics because it erodes our democratic process" as opposed to "Let's remove Harper from power because he's a threat to democracy," then maybe people would listen more. I know I would.

As the author explains, people, regardless of political backgrounds, have short term memories and attention spans. This thing about Harper doing it for sinister reasons - I want to be Fidel of the North! - as opposed to the Liberals doing it within the "rules" of political ethics is a bit too technical for my taste. There are no degrees of proroguing (to the extent I understand it) or moral attachments to it. Proroguing is just that: Postponing.

By its design, Canadian politics is anti-democratic; and that goes for any PM. The concentration of power in the PM is great leaving him (or her...or it) more powerful than an American president.

Didn't they used to call Jean Chretien the "Benign dictator?" Or was it the benevolent dictator? Whatever. He was also dubbed the "Teflon Man."

Call these rallies for what they are: Anti-Harper protests.

If the parties and their supporters are so fed up with Harper, call a damn election and see where it goes. If not, spare me the hypocritical bull shit.