so, this is a canadian martial law? wonder if the shrub will do the same here?

Punt

Parliament doing nothing for two months, sounds so familiar. Thanks for this Stirling. Rough seas ahead.

The Governor General freezing like a dear in the headlights? Makes me wonder just what kind of sweet talk did Harper use on him?

Citizen Stirling Newberry:

Thank you sire, may I have another??!! God, the Canadians are in a real tub of shit that Harper-Bush and the fascists have filled to the brim for ‘em. It will be interestin’ ta see if a real new political alignment will immerge with the Liberals movin left and the new coalition gettin’the PQ separatists into the fold.

Amazing how fast Harper’s sails have lost the wind after the last election. Now he has to rely on some obscure clause in the Canadian Constitution that reminds them that they really are NOT a sovereign independent nation…but are actually subjects of the British Monarchy! Even the Brits wouldn’t put up with these shenanigans! I can only imagine the political cartoons showing Harper peeking out of Queen Elizabeth’s petticoats, along with her Corgis!

I recall the last time the Queen used this power was when she colluded with the CIA to toss out a Labour Government in Oz!

Makes me wonder just what kind of sweet talk did Harper use on him?

on her

Governor General Michaelle Jean as officially assumed her role as Royal Overseer to the British Empire.

Wow. Harper really doesn’t care who or what he hurts so long as he stays in alleged power.

”Living” in Ottawa with this mess …

I suspect Harper scared her … a la Shock Doctrine. And/or told her that she, a former journalist married to a former Quebec separtist (see below), would be blamed for the fall of Harper and his government. He will eventually have to resign himself. He proposed last week reversing pay equity and cancelling strike rights for the public service!!!!

He’s lying publicly all over the place including twice this morning about events of just last week. He’s got phone-in and letter and demonstration propaganda campaiggns going. He’s inflaming Quebec divisions by blaming the federal Bloc party for all of this when he’s almost made deals with them in the past himself.

I wanted it to be over this morning, or Monday with the expected vote against Harper. It’s very disheartening. Incredibly un-democratic in terms of the parliamentary system. It may take a year, but no one in Parliament trusts him, even those who fear any backlash at the polls.

And I don’t see a backlash: 62% of the population voted AGAINST Harper just 6 weeks ago. And he seems to be behaving as if he had won the majority that he planned to win.

Oh shit.

Harper bent the law to get this election, produced a throne speech which was going to bring down the government. In effect the GG has given Harper a second election, with only one voter, herself, and has allowed Harper to stay in power, as a minority without the confidence of Parliament, on his diktat.

This is a total victory for Harper, without the slightest trace of democracy or compromise.

One of the things I’m appreciating about these posts is that I’m learning about Canada.

Haven’t got the reaction from the ‘kool kids’ table over at the Club, but my first take on this is that in buying time Harper also bought himself some more rope to hang himself. The Conservative are going to spend as much money as it takes to flood the air waves over the next six weeks, but it’s not going to change people’s verdict on Harper as an individual. There’s too much out in the open, and too many dead bodies in the Conservative Party past for them to pull off a Bush-style re-election on the strength of the delay. Not to mention that he will bear all the responsibility for the worsening economy (wait to the Christmas shopping figures come in), because he got Parliament prorogued at a time when emergency intervention might be required to stem the bleeding. I doubt very much that such intervention would have been forthcoming in any case, but he will take the full blame for the worsening economy.

His party are furious at him, and rightly so. He has run his government like a one-man show. Nobody else to drop the crap that is coming on.

Thanks for that Stirling!

Harper bent HIS own law to call the election!!! It just goes on and on with him. He’s starting to scare people like me.

It’s just way too easy for these tricksters to get away with this shit when almost no one will speak plainly. What I do see here is that some strong truthspeakers are emerging here, but it never seems to be enough. Still, the meme that parliament has been closed down is powerful and puts the lie to all of Harper’s obfuscations.

I really think this was a personal/political minefield for GG Jean: Harper would have gone after her as supporting the Bloc/Quebec/separatists too if she had not ”helped” him. It would have ruined her reputation. It’s also interesting that Trudeau’s son Justin was just elected to parliament as a Liberal member from Quebec this cycle. I’ve only saw one interview with him and he’s very junior of course ~ strange days.

Like I said, I think these Conservatives will go the way of Bush & Co. but it’s going to take time. And pain.

This will keep festering. Regardless of what all the Harper people are predicting.

Harper backed down over the weekend on removing the right to strike from civil servants and the $1.98/voter subsidy each party receives from the government, the removal of which would have impoverished the opposition parties and made Canadian politics beholden solely to money (sound familiar?).

progressivebloggers.ca is a good compendium of lefty Canadian blogs which are keeping up with events.

I think so, Knut: I’m still in shock but it’s true the silver lining is that Harper will wear all the economic news between now and then. Including today’s further drop in the dollar.

Thanks Thrasyboulos! I will checkout progressivebloggers.ca too.

That is when he had the possibility of his government falling. Now, he does not, and can push through whatever he likes under threat of a yet another election.

This was about the worst thing that the GG could have done, in that it gave Harper everything he wanted, and for nothing.

Damn [edited by mod]. Like most politicians, she is looking out for her own political future. She came from Haiti and what does she do for her starving country..zero.

Nope..it is not. It has been declared three times..WW1, WW2, and during the October Crisis in 1970.

Harper, like all egomaniacs with authoritarian streaks, has made the mistake of showing his complete contempt for all of the other members of his party, all of the other members of the other political parties, and all of the Canadian public. Yes, as an intelligent, cunning, and amoral manipulator, he has definitely terrorized the GG into extending the life of his government for a short while — but he has utterly underestimated the utter hatred he has generated in his political opponents, within his party, and throughout the Canadian public. Like a tick who has burrowed through the skin, he is clinging tightly and he will be difficult to remove, but it will be done because his loyal constituency is smaller than the Republican party’s is, and it is shrinking rapidly.

Big mistake on the GG’s part. Very disappointed in her. Completely gutless, and the wrong the decision given the coalition had more MPs and more votes.

The Tories are now accusing the Liberals and NDP of treason. Rhetoric like that is almost certain to be backed up with use of executive powers between now and Parliament reconvening.

If things spiral out of control, and that looks possible, this could precipitate more than a momentary crisis.

The Canadian blogs are not mixed at all. There are the usual nut jobs that also consider goosestepping a sacred right and love the decision but the public contempt for GG Jean is overwhelmingly evident.

It is very much a wake-up call to All Canadians including those Human Beings that vote with Bloc Quebecois and that Harper’s Thugs constantly demean as nonhuman. Harper’s Cabal is standard textbook Bush-Cheney-Rove.

Many new Canadian citizens voiced that they left previous Dictatorships and are now a part of another Dictatorship.

GG Jean needs to be removed as her role has totally exposed colonial British Indentured Serfdom.

A lesson from Black History for a Black GG for All Canadians
The Montgomery Bus Boycott
http://www.watson.org/~lisa/bl…..ntbus.html

A Citizen’s Strike Boycott. The smirking Harper thinks he has won but the situation can change rapidly if a large portion of the public stops all nonessential purchases including eating out, movies and anything that can be delayed in purchasing.

Ok .. it may be only you guys standing between me and insanity: the ’overnight’ polls released last night show the Tories up, everyone else down, but 18% NOT SURE about what they think is happening. It feels like planted polling to me. Harper is the only one with the machinery, governemnt, and money to dominate with any lie he wishes to use. It’s BushCo at -10 C.

Harper is being called a liar publicly and they cannot even pretend to trust him anymore. It will keep festering until Harper is gone no matter how long that takes but Dion must be replaced now I think to give the coalition continued life. I wish they didn’t have to use the Liberal leader as PM but it seems that will be a fact of life given Canadian politics. We used to tend left, but hell, NOT that far left. I guess.

Former federal NDP leader Broadbent (universally respected) is on fire and Liberal leadership contender Rae is vocal, honest, and powerful. He’s a good match for Harper but Rae was the ”failed” Premier of a surprise NDP government 20 years ago so they ooga booga him for that. The other Liberal leadership contender Ignatieff (playing it very safe which I hate) perhaps comes across on paper a better communicator than Dion but I think his halting, intellectual style would give much the same end result as Dion’s.

People are afraid of Harper, like BushCo. He’ll be gone before he is discredited for anything that cannot be called a matter of opinion. The media’s message seems to be GG Jean really had no choice. I think that’s true unfortunately. It would have been really ugly if Harper had gone after her: she’s from Quebec so it wouldn’t have given him any pause.

We are a Banana Republic with Maple Sugar at this point.

oops … The ”surprise NDP government” was in Ontario 20 years ago. Important point.